OCR Text |
Show MILITARY DEMANDS ADVANCING COPPER Large Buying Began November No-vember 1 and Has Continued Con-tinued Ever Since Tn d scues ng tl e present situat on In the copper market and the situat on s x months ago when pessimism re grned the last lsue of the Eng neer ng and M Ing Journal says that the erro in forecast ing the present conditio was due to un deres imat n m tary requirements for copper The cr s s I copper last Au gust "was due to the sudden loss of our principal custome Germany It was not cons dered t at any p obable dema d for ml 1 arv purposes -noud be anywhere near t e norma German demand for peaceful purposes It was ndeed fore een that Germany s exports of copper manufactures vou d be replaced by e pot s from other countries to which we should supply the copper as previous y we had suDpl ed it to Germany but e en T.llowln0 for that it was cons dered by the b g producers to he best to sho ten sa I and reduce product on by about 60 per cent Th a was wise alt ough in ooklng backward we are ab e to see how m s taken was the diagnos s of al the doc tors, let as things were then a main tenance of the product on at the Ju y rate or a general cu tailment of on y 2 per cent n ght have p ec p tated the rr ce to a le el far lower than that to h ch it actual y fe 1 and m ght have led to dl asters before readjustments cou d be effected About November 1 large buyln began end has cont nued ever s nee, with but s ght interrupt ons Tl la has not reflect ed any noteworthy ncrease in pure y domestic consumption but has been chiefly for m 1 tary purposes cakes, in gots and wire bars being sh pped direct ly abroad or e se to domestic manuftfc turers and thence abroad nmanufac tured forms Not long ago there appeared about con temporaneous y a Gern an statement that the copper consumption of the German army was at the rate of about 100 00O metric tons per annum and a Brit s es timate that the Austro German consump t on must be at the rate of 113 000 long tons per annum Gern any and Austria Hungary are not obta n ng the r copper from the outs de but the figures cited are indices that the copper consumption of the allies s at least as great and their copper s be ng supp ed chtefiy by America Tie opin on is he d in well informed quarters that all of these es t mates are too low rather t lan too h gh. Bes des the bu ing for domestic con sumption and for foreign consumption n illtary and lndustr a there has been some speculatl e buj ing on marg ned t ansactions ant c patory of the ending of the war and some advance buj ng , for domest c consumption Altoget er tl e ab orptlon of copper during the last s x months has reduced tl e stocks at the d spoal of American refiners to a very Bma 1 quant tv and it s probable that I there has also been a reduct on in the ! stocks of blister copper WW e there are no longer any stat sties about these I the statements of the refiners may be ac cepted freelv inasmuch as the advancing price and the wi i ngness to increase pro duct on are confirmatory of them In deed it is po s b e that the curta Iment of production b 50 per cent was carried on a little too long and that there may be temporan y a shortage of supply while the ncreased output of the mines is on the road to the refineries and while the refiners at3 are being restocked Anyway the s tuat on is so developing that tl e new production of Inspiration and Chucpjicamata of which we shall be gin to hear a good deal about the middle of this sear w be regarded with equa n m ty Contnbutorv also to the strength, of the present situation is the fact that the copper output of Mexico is now reduced "to a -very small 'figure. |