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Show REVISED FIGURES GMNJjfPEIl Over Billion Pounds Were Produced Pro-duced During the Year Just Past. FIGURES ON METAL HARD TO SECURE Refineries Loath to Permit Statistics Sta-tistics to Go Out Into the World. In tho Journal of May 23, we reported our revised statistics of tho production of copper In 1007, these statistics representing repre-senting the production of tho smelters, and corresponding substantially with tho production of tho mines, says the Engineering Engi-neering und Mining Journal. Wo pointed out In the discussion that those statistics represented the metal shipped from tho western smelters during tho year ending October 31, or oven earlier, and not thu amount of motnl turned out by tho rentiers re-ntiers In final marketable form. We now glvo the production of reilned copper In tho following table: Kind. Pounds. Lake , 220,317,000 Electrolytic , 851,441.000 Casting 17,957,890 Pig, exported 30,032,000 Total 1,152,717.890 This tablo Includes not only the copper from ore, both domestic and foreign, hut also tho amount of old copper re-entering the market by the refining of scrap and other wasto products and Junk. The total amount of this old copper was In round numbers 39,350,000. This was treated not only by the smelters who make It their sole business to rework such material, but also by nearly all of the refiners, whose chief business Is the refining of blister copper. The latter refiners pass the old material through tho same kind of treatment treat-ment as the now, and out of It produce both electrolytic and casting copper of virgin quality. Pig copper, low In gold and silver, from Arizona, California and Tennessee Is also marketed as casting copper. Jn tho refining of blister copper, a portion por-tion thereof Is recovered and marketed In tho form of bluestonc. In 1907 the refiners re-finers produced 34,550,000 pounds of bluestonc, blue-stonc, equivalent to about S, 300,000 pounds of copper. Adding this to the production of refined copper, plus the pig copper exported, ex-ported, the total Is 1,101.047,890 pounds. Deducting 39,350,000 pounds derived from old material, the production of refined copper and the copper content of blue-stone blue-stone in 1907 was 1,120.697,890 pounds. This total Is not very dlfferont from tho total of tho production of tho mines of tho United States, viz., 879,241,760 pounds, plus the Imports of copper In ore nnd matte (60,622,415 pounds) and tho Imports Im-ports In pig and scrap (192,901,267 pounds). These llgures give a total of 1,-132,765,448 1,-132,765,448 pounds, which must bo diminished di-minished by about 5,000,000 pounds to allow al-low for refined coppor Imported Into the United States. The stock of coppor on hand at tho refineries re-fineries nt the end of 1907 Is not easy to dotermlno precisely. For obvious reasons, rea-sons, tho refiners aro reluctant to disclose the whole truth respecting their stocks, although the statistics may not be published pub-lished for six months later. On ho basis of reports, which wo know to be reliable, accounting for a fairly large portion of tho stock on hand, and estimating the remainder, re-mainder, we compute that the amount of refined copper on hnnd at the end of 1907 was about 120,000,000 pounds, of which 80.000.000 pounds was electrolytic and. casting copper, and 40,000,000 pounds was Lake copper. In comparison with the production, pro-duction, the stock of Lake copper was proportionately much greater than tho stock of electrolytic These statistics do , not Include the metal In process of treatment treat-ment at the refineries. j Tho United States Imports a small i amount of refined copper. Of course tho ' Importation of refined copper Into tho : United States Is like carrying coalH to Newcastle, but there are times, such as occurred in tho spring of 1907. when a Bpecles of arbitrage transactions may show a profit. In this way tho United States In 1907 imported somo "beat selected" se-lected" copper from Great Britain, some casting copper from Japan, and rclmport-ed rclmport-ed somo Amorlcan electrolytic copper from Japan and China. In tho aggregate these Imports may have amounted to 5,-000,000 5,-000,000 pounds. (No preclso statistics aro a'allablc.) The exports of copper 'from tho United States In tho form of pigs, bars, plates and cathodes amounted to ( 508,929,401 pounds. With theso data tho domestic consumption Is computed to have been about 638,000,000 pounds, as appears In tho accompanying table. Pounds, j ivun, u.iuuni j i, ijvi i',UUU,UUU Imports of refined 5,000,000 Production 1,152,747,890 Total supply 1.166.747.S90 Exports 50S.929.401 Remaining In United StatCB. 657.818.4S9 Stock, Decomber 31, 1907 120.000,000 Dome3tIo consumption 537,818,4S9 In previous years our estimate of the consumption of coppor In tho United States has been based upon tho Imports and exports, tho production of the domestic do-mestic mines, and the total stoclc of copper cop-per in first hands, Including copper in transit and In process of refining, the latter lat-ter being estlmntcd on the basis of tho production of the domestic mines in tho last quarter of tho year, reckoning Lake copper as being In transit an average of 20 days, and blister copper In transit and process of refining an average of about 00 days. Computing In this way, the total stoclc at tho end of 1907 wa3 221,260,000 pounds, and the consumption of coppor In the United Statos was 531.510,118 pounds This figure Is not very dlfferont from the consumption computed on tho basis of the refined coppor as above. The basis of refined coppor is without doubt tho more accurate. It Is to bo remarked that this Is tho first time that any attempt at-tempt has boen made to baso the statistics statis-tics of consumption on the production of refined copper Including the material derived de-rived from scrap, and consequently there are no corresponding figures for 1906 with which comparison can be made. We received reports from most of tho refiners covering the first eight months ot 1907. Comparing these returns with tho returns for the full year, It appears that thero was no great reduction In the output out-put of the refined metal during tho last quarter of tho year. The mines had curtailed cur-tailed their production, but because of tho copper In transit and in process of refining, re-fining, the refineries had to keep on at about tho same rato as previously, tho result of which was, of course, a great accumulation of stock. This throws considerable con-siderable light on the situation In the markot at tho boginnlng of 1908. It was not until aftor tho end of 1907 that tho refiners wero able to restrict materially their output. |