New Britain herald., 1916-06-08
FINANCIAL NEWS
CREST OF WAVE IN
 PRICES IS REACHE
High Cost Of Steel May Go
 Higher

The Iron Age says today: The teIX cy of prices for early delivery to d@ proach those for forward delivery@ more marked in the heavier finish lines-particularly in bars and str tural shapes and to less degree plates. In that feature of the mar close observers are confirmed in Judgment recently passed that prices the crest of the wave has b seen.
 Those producers whose policy been to cater to high-priced spot bl k ness find now and then that they h M space, and in such a case the makes the price, whereas for mon the buyers eagerness has made Such orders are not large facH with most mills we'll sold into rA year, but they are indicative. !. Taking pig iron as the measW z May was a month of high-rate IH duction, the total being 3,351,073 t4 or 108,099 tons a day, against 3,2H 76S tons in April or 107,592 tona day, and 107, 667 tons a day in Maj ! the previous high rate. With 321 naces in blast June 1 the capacity 1 tive was 1O8,386 tons a day, agaH
 109,O72 tons a day for 322 furnd at the beginning of May
 Three furnaces have blown in sT
 this month opened, so that producH
 is now at the yearly rate of atz
 40,300,000 tons. But furnaces k2
 going out for repairs and on it's pA
 ent base the industry strains hard 1 any output above the 10000, ,0O0H mark. The ferromanganese and spieg@ i sen output last month was the cd try's largest-35,844 tons. For 1H l the monthly average was but 19H 1 tons. The manganese situation, fN l the standpoint of both home protK tion and imports, is working easierA Apart from the record output, chief interest in pig iron is in the ! port business. The weeks sale# | Italy of Bessemer and basic are above 10000 tons and on further % | siderable inquiries Central Wes l furnaces have quoted Bessemer M
 at $21 at furnace. The home pig-M
 market is dragging, and weaknesM l Southern iron is more pronounM Around Chicago and in some o# 1 districts Southern sellers have a 1 hand at their present prices.
 Recent buying of basic iron in e ern Pennsylvania brought out Id . prices and both basic and four irons show a recession there of tv < ty-five cents to fifty cents. K More is heard of the offerinsM higher carbon billets and bloM C. tions uses, probably 150,000 tons l@ ing accumulated at large steel wo@ While not suitable for many com @ uses, this steel has replaced soft s& billets in some cases, price ran,# from $30 to SAP. Deliveries are @ ter on unfinished steel. Some % quiry has appeared for sheet bars fourth quarter contracts.
 The finished material situa judged by May production, shipm @ and new orders, promises no marA x change for some months. GenerM the mills made no gain on ordA some of the largest companies erM the month with an increase. tho not a great one, in their obHgati H In the Chicago district the lea @ "A@i o' Vhety OulpuL oA 900 tons, broke all records; yet @ dications are that the oversold @ dition of the mills there will be 2 phasized as summer advances.
 The new Duluth mill, which M sent 25,000 tons of steel a mont M Chicago, will now finish its own
 duct.
 Prompt Bessemer steel bars
 now be had at S2.75, Pittsb # which is a considerable conces S from the recent price for such da cry. For the first half of next @ S250 has looked high to implen# #& makers, who are still taking in KS at $1.50, and agricultural contr #1 bought for 1917 are not closing KS rapidly.