OCR Text |
Show ITALIAN STEI1PS 1 WILL ACCEPT COPPER But Shippers Must Present Certificate Vouching for Neutrality of Consignees The Italian steamsh p lines operat ng o t of New York -with the except on of the S cula Americana tv 11 handle ex port coppei where t is cons gned to neut al cons gnees at a neutral port As a part of the necessary arrangen ent between be-tween the steamship lines and shippers the latter will have to present along with tie bill of lad ng a certificate vouching for the ne tral ty of the inter ests to wl ch the copper s cons gned This certif cate must be vised by the Br t sh consul general at Iew York bo-fore bo-fore it will be accepted as a valid docu ment by the steamship lines says Wall Street Journal The Italian lines wh ch have agreed to handle copper sh pments for export on this basis are the Na gaz one Generale Italiana, La Veloce Nav gaz one Itan ana and Ital a So eta di Naviga zione These lines operate to Genoa ISaples and Palermo The Sicula Amen cana has not yet heard from ts home off ce as to whether it has been decided to handle copper on a b milar basis All of the Italian lines report that their available cargo space is n such demand for other cargo that at present they do not see the r way clear to ac cept sh pments of copper In fact two i of the lines are expecting to charter ad d t onal tonnage in order to take care of the b;g volume of business that has fallen to them. Kepresentat ves of the large copper agencies admit that there has been a lull m copper buy ng over the last seve al days a development that was expected af tei a spirited buying movement last ing for more than two weel s They coat nne to quote the metal at 12 cents per pound but some sellers are willing to make recess ons One pro ; ducer says the industry is now m bet ter shape than at any time since war was declared n Europe Over 100 000 000 pounds of surplus copper has been turned into money which places the copper companies m a very strong pos turn f nanc ally Tie recent ad ance m pr ces and heavy buy ing will not be followed by any increase in product on The 50 per cent policy will be contm ed The fact that most of the Italian steamshp companies will now accept copper for shipment will tend to help the expo t situat on. The recent trajing movement was not part c pated n to a great extent by the wire n akers according to one copper nterest Connect cut brass makers bought heav Iv however The head of a metal house said n referr ng to the probable course of the market With demand cut off from a large part of Europe and with Eng land buying heavilv and thus probably acc mulating large stocks I do not see how any cons derable ad ance can take place in the price of metal. In legard to the reduct on of domestic stocks t must be remembered that the mines did not beg n generally to curtail produc t on until the end of August which means that the refinery production was not curtailed materially for another thirty days or more Thus we have had output on a 50 per cent bas s only for about two months or less whereas demand and exports fell sharply long before that time In view of these facts, I think estimates of grea ly re duced domestic stocks should be taken with cant on. |