New-York tribune., 1919-02-05
Billion Pounds of
Unsold Copper in
The United States
Producers Anticipate Heavy
Losses ON Sales Under
26 Cents - Conference
With the Miners Ends

of the United States as revealed yester
day at the conclusion of series of
conferences between the Secretary of
Labor and miners, called for the pur-
pose of reaching an agreement on
wages:
/. There now exists an unsold stock of
copper in process from the mines to the
refneres in the finished form at the
refineres of approximately 1,000.000,000
pounds, representing over $175, 900, 600 tied
up in stocks. This copper produced
on scale of wages based on a minimum
price of &c cents pound and for every
cent received under that level producers
will lose $4,000. 900.
=, :. Sales Of copper since the signing of
the armistice have not consumed Is per
cent of the output of the mines
3. A stock of copper is found to be on
hand in France. England and Italy which,
while small for war consumption, is a
considerable amount for peace times. large
amounts of scrap metals being for sale in
connection with cancellations of munitions
manufacturing programmes.
Imports Discouraged
4. Foreign governments having pur-
chased their copper at % cents to 26 cents
a pound. are remarketing under govern
ment control stocks bought at those prices
and meanwhile dscouraging and in
some cases prohibiting imports of new
stocks.
5. Copper producers had little copper
sold ahead at the time the armistice was
signed. as the needs of the United States
and It's allies were taking close to 80 per
cent of the country's entire production,
which was being supplied monthly.
b. combination of the cessation of the
export trade and the interval required to
turn war industries into peace industries
has brought about declining prices in cop
per as well other commodities, and
while prices are falling buyers lack
courage to purchase.
The statement was made that ac-
cumulated copper stocks are being con-
sumed, although for the moment the
process is slow. 1t is pointed out that
with the coming Of peace northern ncu-
trails and the Central Empires, as we'll
as the rest of the world, will need cop
Per. Also telephone and telegraph
companies have large amount of post
poned construction work. which must
soon be placed. With the coming of
spring considerable general construc-
tion work may be expected, and orders
will undoubtedly be placed which re-
quire copper. Emphasis was also placed
on the need of giving credits to for
cigners for the purpose Of assisting
them in making purchases here.
The statement issued after yester-
DAYS conference disclosed that copper
production ir 1913 averaged o00,0O0,0 900
pounds a month, or about 2,5OU, ,0OC 900
pounds for the year, against q pre-
war annual productions of 900, 1000, 900
pounds.
"When PEACE is proclaimed" the
statement added "and the necessary
foreign credits are established in this
-
100000 pounds per month, but we
can hardly expect sales to warrant a
production of 200,000,000 pounds per
az during the destructive con-
sumption of the war.
Low Cost Producers Advantage
advantage in operations in the near
future Will be confined to low cost pro-
duccrs. The problem now before us is
how best to safeguard the industry to
insure continued operations and liv
ing wage. The terms of the various
sliding scales automatically regulate
wages, according to the market price.
"Wages for January, 1919, on terms
of the sliding scale, were paid on the
basis Of 80 to 80 cent copper, although
the December market price for copper
was 26 cents, as fixed by the War In
dustries Beard. Wages are, therefore,
SO to rs cents higher on war basis
than they would have been on peace
basis, according to the sliding scale.
"A reduction in the selling price of
copper to 20 cents would call for a
reduction in wages Of rs cents per day
or 25 cents for each 2 cent drop in the
market. If copper drops to IS cents
tie reductior in wages would be 81
per day on the sliding scale basis
Changing the sliding scale to war
basis advanced wages SO cents to 81
per day from the prewar sliding scale
rates"
After yesterdays conference( it. was
announced that the results would be
put before the miners unions by their
delegates. Approximately 80 per cent
of the workers in Arizona, Utah and
are said to have been laid
off because of falling off in the de-
mand for copper.