The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-09-17
FEW ORDERS FROM
 FOREIGN QUARTERS
Domestic Demand for Iron
 and Steel Also Light
PIG IRON VERY DULL
Although Inquiries Made for Semi Finished Steel for British Isles, Manufacturers Find Prices
 Unsatisfactory

l Cleveland O.. September 16-f fspe.
 eisl)-The Iron Trade Review tomor.
 row will say:
 The extreme slowness with which
 foreign inquiries for iron and steei
 products develop into orders is having
 a discouraging effect upon the iron
 trade. It is generally recognized that
 early improvements cannot be expect ed so far as foreign demand Is con- cerned
 "The domestic demand is likewise very light and decrease in operating g capacity seems probable. The weak
 ness of the market is shown in a ten
 dency toward softness in finished ma | terials for prompt delivery. But ow- l ing to the expectations that business will improve after financial conditions become strengthened out, sellers are naming higher prices for delivery aft ] CT January 1. Both buyers and sell CTS are conservative about contracting z for delivery into next year and this attitude contributes toward the dull ness of the market at the present time. Inquiries for semi-finished steel for the British Isles continue to be re- ccived In increasing numbers, but American manufacturers find that prices are not satisfactory to foreign buyers, one large independent company has, however taken an order for 200O tons of billets to cover an export or der for wire taken by Trenton com pany.
 Leading makers of plates in the east report very market decrease in de- mand during the past week and there lis very little activity in the plate mar ket in any part of the country. Nat urally prices are weaker and $l.f5 Pittsburg can be done on desirable bus mess. Steel bars are Also being quoted on this basis. There is still consider able activity in sheets in the eastern territory and prices generally are well maintained in leading centers, but there is some indication of weakness at Chi cago.
 Pig iron sellers of leading centers say that not for 16 or IT years has the pig iron business been as dull as at present time. The unwllingness of buyers to place orders for the delivery after January 1 at higher prices than TOW prevailing is illustrated by the ac- tior of the Lukens Iron & Steel ca, in buying only 14,000 tons basic after inauiring for from 35.00O to 10000 tons.
 ''The shipments of ferromanganese from England including several car goes which arrived during the past few days have given relief in this market. The usual asking price is now $50. and it is understood that even lower can be done. The shipment of emery to manufacturers of erasive wheels. which was temporarily sus- pended on account of the war, has been resumed"
 sa1 \ The Iron Age will say tomorrow:
 "The unvarying report from iron ana steel centers is that the first half of September has been the quietest pe- riod of the year. Manufacturing con- sumers of steel products have lately made such curtailments that specifi- cation on existing contracts with the forms of steel production is less than in August.
 'The indications are now plainer that the favorable effects of the war upon American steel trade will develop slowly and that for a longer or short CT period before they appear The in- dustry must submit to some further readjustments. It should not be over looked that stocks of iron and steel in all consuming countries are being drawn upon in these weeks in which international credits have broken down and that replenishment Is likely to be widespread when once the machinery of exchange can be patched into work ing order
 Foreign inquiry continues, but it cuts a small figure in comparison with the countrys steelmaking capacity An English company asked for 2OO0 tons of wire rods and Russia for 5000 tons of barbed wire. As the later Is con traband the transaction has Its risks. English sheet mills advise American steel works that their quotations on sheet bars are too high. The same an- swer is made to quotations of 2O,000 tons of low phosphorus pig iron made by. eastern firms on inquiries from Great Britain. Early buying in some European quarters is evidently less imperative than had been thought.
 "In the pig iron market dull and even more depressed in all sections, the east has led in activity and there Philadelphia has done most of the bus mess There are reports that Buffalo iron has sold lower in New England and that local iron in the Chicago dis trict has developed further weakness.