Valdez daily prospector., 1914-12-18
FRIDAY, DECEMBER IS, 1914.
THE RECOVERY IN COPPER.

copper in November was based chief ly upon improved demand for do- mestic consumption, the large sales for the month having been more for domestic delivery than foreign. Dur ing the three months of gloom August, September and October manufacturers lived largely on thei.' old contracts for supplies, and p]ac- ed new orders only for their imme- diate requirements. The normal bus mess in contracts for delivery dur ing the two or three ensuing months practically ceased to exist. Gradual ly, however, the orders received by the manufacturers, Teflecting u'ti- mate consumption, began to increase, first in the brass business, then in the sheet business, and last of all in the rod and wire business, and along with the clearing up of uncertainties in several directions, and the gener- al increase in optimism, the manufac- turers of copper saw that the ground had become safe for the resumption of business with the copper produc- CTS in the old way.
 Some very substantial buying be- gan in the latter part of October, when already it looked as if daylight were ahead The interruption to the export business, which happened sud denly at the beginning of November, cast new shadow over the field, but as things turned out, this proved sim ply to be an excellent test of the soundness of things. Copper was in fact in the position that the producers would rather keep the metal than sacrifice it When manufacturers be- came convinced that the producers meant what they said and that there were not going to be any bargain counters" they began to buy in ear nest and congratulated themselves that they were getting copper at less than 12c., which was quite bargain enough. With these circumstances the price for copper rose rapidly, so much so that it was laid to "spec- ulators" by some skeptics who must always have a manipulative reason for everything. In fact, there is nev- CT any considerable speculation in the domestic copper business. The producers sell in the main to the manufacturers who are going to use the copper and are quite averse to selling it in any other way. Certain of our British contemporaries are more amusing in their suspicion that the American producers have raised the price for copper in order to make the British government pay more for the copper it has been seizing!
 At the end of November, we find the copper market at about the same level where it stood at the end Of July, when war was expected, al though there were still faint hopes that it might be averted. Even be- fore the war cloud gathered in July, everybody was gloomy because cop per was selling down toward 13c. Ev- erybody is now happy because it is around 12 1-2c. We surely do not want anybody to be anything but happy, and we hope that furth' CT advance in price will increase the happiness. We must, however, point out that the present situation does not offer any basis for excessive en thusiasm. The copper producers are much better off than two months age they had any reason to hope. The price having gone to 11c., has re covered to 12 1-2c., instead of sink ing to 10c., which many feared would happen. Furthermore, the porphyry producers have exhibited their abil ity to operate their mines on hal scale without increasing their cos of production per pound of copper Thus there is in prospect resump tion of dividends, if not at the olt full rate. at least at a partial rate.
 It must be remembered, however that the improvement in copper, sat isfactory as it has been, reflects th' conditions in the industry upon thu basis of 50 per cent. curtailmen of production. It would be fatal t +bo 1uo1faro If evervhodv if any i'm portant producer should becom minded to do anything other than t remain curtailed. The essential thin' in the copper business, just now. l to preserve the status Quo-E neering and Mining Press.