New Britain herald., 1918-08-02
TIN SELLING FOR
A DOLLAR ABOUND
In 1897 That Dollar Would Have
Bought Eight Pounds

New York, Aug. 2.-Recent quota
tons of a dollar a pound for tin in
the markets of New York suggest that
this highly necessary product, for
which the United States is dependent
upon mines at the opposite side of the
globe, may soon rank with the ''prec-
iOus metals" Tin inportations into the
| United States, according to a COM
pilation by the National City bank of
New York, averaged 1873 cents per
pound in value in 1897; 27.23 cents in
1900; 30.52 cents in 1910; 1897 cents
in 1917, and 59.4 cents in April 1918,
responded to recent jump of $50 per
| ton in London, with quotations in the
! New York markets of $500 per pound
for spot Banca"; though the import
| prices above quoted relate to the cost
or selling price of the tin in the mar
| kets from which imported into the
! United States, and not those in the
! New York markets.
| "Banca" tin, mined in the little ISL
| ands of Banca just off the coast of
Java, has been reaching the United
| States of late across the Pacific in
sted of by way of the Mediterranean
as under normal conditions; and this
is also true Of a part of the tin of
the Malayan peninsula, and the COM
paratiVely small quantity of tin now
being drawn from mines in China,
which are reported at the present
time as 'out of the market on ac-
count Of floods which prevent trans
portation to the HOngkong smeIters.
Tin continues to be, despite this re-
markable advance in prices in recent
years, greatly i'll demand by the indus
tries of the United States, chiefly for
use in the manufa cture of tinplate, of
which the United States is now turn
ing out over $100,00O,O0O worth an |
nually, for all Of this and the other |
industries using tin the United States
is dependent i'll large part upon the |
mines on the opposite side of the |
globe though considerable quantities |
are now being drawn from our South |
American neighbor, Bolivia, which |
produces nearly one-third of the tin |
of the world, but exports it as con
centrates" owing to lack of fuel for |
use in smelling.
All efforts to successfully develop
tin production in the United States
which now uses about one-half of the !
tin mined in the world, have thus far
been unsuccessful. The extremely
small quantities found in Alaska and
other parts of the country have been
insufficient to supply even / per cent
Of the steadily increasing quantity re-
CURED by our industries. The quanti-
ty of tin imported into the United
States has grown from 100000
pounds in 1890 to 100000 pounds
in190O; 101.000,O00 pounds in 1910,
and approximately 40, 900 pounds
in 1917 plus 10000 tons of tin ore,
valued at about 100000. This I'M
portaticn of tin as ore is a compare
lively new feature in our tin supply, |
though the United States has been, |
during the past two years, bringing
tin ore for smelling in this country
from Bolivia, which formerly sent all
of her tin ore to Europe for smelt-
ing.
The value of the tin imported into
the country since the beginning of the
tinplate industry in 1898 has aggre-
gated approximately $7O0,000 900.
about per cent. of it used in the
of tinplate, of which the
production in the United States has
grown from 100000 pounds in 1892
to 1000, 900, 900 in 1908; 2,000,O00.OOO
in 1912 and 2,766,401,227 pounds in
1917.
With the large growth in our pro-
duction of tinplate has come an even
more startling growth in the exporta-
ton of that article. The value of the
exports of domestic tinplate amounted !
in the fiscal year 1898 to less than +
81 900: in 1908. $1300.000 and in the ,
fiscal year 1913 over $50,O00,0OO OF I
this large expectation in 1918 about !
100000 worth went to Argentina: ! ,
100000 worth to Japan; $4,000. 600 ,
worth to Italy; $6,000,000 worth to ,
Canada and approximately So 900 Ooo :