Douglas daily dispatch., 1927-09-20
Weekly Copper ReOiew
RY CHARLES F. WILLIS
Editor The Mining Journal

anticipated demand IOr IIle HeIdlS,
predicted for early in September, came
about The market has been quiet
and lead, for the first time in many
moons. is now down on a level with
zinc in price. Action has already
started in the copper market and
sales during the latter part of last
week we're larger than they have
been at any time in the past month.
Copper stands at 13 1-3, lead has
dropped from $40 to 6.25 and zinc
remains stationary at 6.25.
1t is felt that the 'watchful wait
ing" policy will bring orders fast
and furious as October requirements
have hardly been touched and even
the September needs are not yet
filled. TIL orders recently placed have
been unusual in the fact that they
are practically all for immediate de.
livery and are not in the usual pro-
portion for future delivery
The business situation in the United
States is better and the fall months
promise further improvement and this
Will react to the benefit of the metals.
In spite of predictions and the
statistics early in the years, it seems
evident now tnat building construi..
ton for 1927 will not show any
marked falling off from 1926.
The lead market is particularly
dead and with a tendency to further
decline as there seems to be no i'm
provement to curtail the production
and curtailment is necessary if the
market is to get better. The business
being done is in fair quantity but
there is no rush and the producers
are comeWhat concerned. Zinc is
also quiet although buying has been
fairly good. There is no particular
tendency towards further drop in
price.
Zincgw was statistically in better shape
at the end of August as the stocks
OF the metal only amounted to
3A587 tons as compared with 39323
tons on July 81, a decrease of 4,736
tens Since June there has been a
steady decrease of stocks. The August
production totaled 1902 tons and
shipments amounted to 53,748 tons.
Taken as a whole, the zinc producers
arc operating at about two thirds
their maximum capacity, having
operated 10000 retorts during the
month and having 44,381 retortS idl3
and available for use.
While the listed price of copper
is 13 1-8, the producers are only
offering at Is Ia and the market
the metal at the 18th price, this
coming from custom smelters and
second hand dealers and they are
not able to offer enough to bring the
whole market down to that figure,
cto ticti
! favorable as the stocks of refined
copper dropped to 1874 tons during
! the month and at the end of August
stood at 93,654 tons, which is lower
than they have been at any time
this year. The production figures
for North and South i America did
not show the curtailment to be as
marked as was expected as the pro-
| duction for the month totaled 1875
! tons as against 1871 tons in July.
/ The reason for the decline in stocks
was that shipments took a big Jump
i upwards, totaling 130,520 tons in
/ August as against 110,105 tons in
i July. Those figures are not exactly
comparative, however, as July was an
exceptionally poor month and the
monthly shipments this year had been
/ averaging about 121000 tons. The
shipments for August, 13O,52O tons,
were larger than any month since
March, 1926
The increase in copper shipments
was spread over both domestic and
foreign, as domestic increased from
49,140 tons in July to 58,784 tons
in August and export shipments in
creased from 81 1865 tons in July to
71,736 tons in August. There has
/ been but one month in the past
/ two years when domestic shipments
were larger than during August, al
though there have been number
! of months when foreign shipments
wete better.
Reports from Europe state that
Germany is making great strides in
getting into the mass production ad-
vantages. Some time ago Germany
went hard after orders for metal
products and cut their prices to the
bone on the theory thats cut prices
brought volume, volume brought mass
production methods and mass pro-
Guction permitted of lower costs
which would justify the lower prices
originally quoted. This is actually
working out as planned and Ger
manyS non-ferrOuS metal workers are
busy and this country is buying well.
The condition in Germany now is
that the brass and copper mills will
soon find it necessary to hire in
exp fenced help.
This activity on the part of Ger
many is worrying some OF the other
y countries and tends to lessen the
amount of metal which they will need
to import, but the French brass and
copper mills are getting into stride
row TO compete with the German
plants The war copper scrap which
is being gradually released by the
French government is complcating
the French situation. The plants On
Great Britain are only working at
about so per cent capacity.
1t seems certain now that the
! growth of the surplus stocks Of copper
is definitely halted and any buying
movement would bring forth a short,
age and it is stated now that there
is definite shortage Of certain
shapes which bios fair tc become
serious if heavy buying should start
| ITI1I,o oil