The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-05
HEAVY BUYING OF
PIC IRON CONTINUES
Iron and Steel Markets Gain
Ground Past Week
PRICES SATISFACTORY
Contracts for Structural Steel Devel-
ops Unexpected Increase in Vol
ume in the West-Large In
quiries for Foundry Iron

Cleveland, O., February 4-(Special)
The Iron Trade Review tomorrow will
say: Heavy buying of pig iron and fin
ished steel products continues with in
| creasing volume and has not been checked
by the gradually advancing prices. IT,
activity shows some letting up In one
| direction, it is more than made up in
another direction.
! The untitled bookings OF the Steel cor
poration in January show a substantial
| increase in the next statement for the
first time in many months The corpora
ton Is now operating at 70 per cent OF in
| got capacity. 1t reports new business
in wire. sheets and tubes on a very
| large scale and has taken a firm stand
on its advance of a dollar ton on plates,
shapes and bars 1t is believed that no
trouble will be experienced in maintain
ing the new price on wire products and
| tubes
Following the recent heavy buying of
pig iron, mostly of foundry grades, great
activity has developed in basic pig and
the volume of the inquiry pending is be-
lieved to be considerably in excess of
10000 tons. This inquiry represents near
| ly all of the users OF basic in the central
west. The Youngstown Sheet and Tube
company has purchased So 200 tons, mostly
| basic, but including some forge for
| first half shipment and the United States
| Steel company, Canton, has purchased
from COCO to 5000 tons from a Cleveland
| firm.
also pending, the largest coming from
the International Steam Pump company.
which is trying to cover for its years re-
quirement 1t is inqriring for about 5000
| tons with the privilege of increasing it's
purchase so per cent.
| The Westinghouse Electric and Manu-
| featuring company is in the market for
| 1900 to 10000 tons for foundries in Pitts
burg and Cleveland. Owing to the de-
cided Improvement in demand recently,
prices of pig iron are slowly advancing
and basic is now quoted so cents higher
than 1t was a week ago. There is a
general firmng up in prices In eastern
territory. The American Car and Foun-
dry company has placed 1900 tons of
foundry and malleable for Berwick. Pa,
with a nearby Pennsylvania maker.
The decline in the production OF coke
and anthracite pig iron which amounted
to 10000 tons in November and ESQ.,
900 tons in December, compared with
the preceding months has been checked
as 1t was only 973,522 tons in January,
when the production was 1,S7S.766 tons
compared with 1876 12S tons in December.
The ferromanganese market has been
much excited. Evidently all was not har
mony among German and English makers
whose prices usually show uniformity and
during the past week prices have ranged
from the extremely low quotation of $35
to $40. 1t is believed that fully 10000 to
$1,000 tons of ferro have been sold within
a few days.
| Contracts for structural steel developed
| an unexpected increase in volume in the
| west where 1000 tons were placed, and q
tonnage almost as long is pending. Con-
| tracts In the east amount to about TO-
| 000 with inquiry improved and prospects
| more favorable Competition among fabri-
Gators continues very active in some CEN
| ters.
| New York. February 4.-(Special.) )-The
| Iron Age will say tomorrow: Iron and.
| steel markets have gained ground in the
| past week January buying was so large
| and the behavior of prices so satisfac-
tory that with the opening of February
| producers in several finished lines have
| announced advances of 81 a ton.
| The initiative was taken In each case
| by Steel corporation subsidiaries. Wire
products were put on a basis of $l.60 for
/ wire nails and $l.40 for fencing wire. In
| wrought steel pipe, discounts were short
| ened one half point, representing 81 a
| ton. In oil country products there was a
! similar advance. On Monday the Carnegie
| Steel company announced that it's price
| for bars, plates and shapes for any de-
| livery is SIPS Pittsburg.
The ferromanganese trade has had an
| exciting week from $40, which represented
a s. fall in a week. there were cuts to S2
| and s36 seaboard, and in a three days
competition, which seems to have been
confined to foreign sellers contracts for
| about 1000 tons were booked.
| Foundry pig iron buying was very
| heavy in January, and some let up is al
| ready indicated for February prices are
| stiffening in northern districts, and are
| now from % to so cents above the low
point in early January. Basic iron has
suddenly become active in the Pittsburg
| district at advancing prices.
| The Youngstown Steel company has just
| closed a contract for 5000 tons for de-
| livery over the first half at about $l3
| valley furnace or 75 cents above the low
| est of the month";
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