October 22, 1915.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

829

German Customs Union as 1,157,692 tons (1,138,651
.tons in July), or 44,527 terns (42,172 tons) per working
day. This total was made up as follows :—Basic steel,
563,358 tons (563,692 tons); Bessemer, 14,931 tons
(13,285 tons); basic open hearth, 468,074 tons (455,778
tons); acid openhearth, 28,721 tons (23,473 tons); basic
cast, 41,927 tons (45,828 tons); acid cast, 19,345 tons
(15,944 tons); crucible, 8,720 tons (8,555 tons); electro,
12,643 tons (12,046 tons). Rhenish-Westphalian pro-
duced 673,891 tons (657,285 tons); Silesia, 104,489 tons
(99,690 'tons); Siegerland and Hesse-Nassau, 27,984
tons (23,877 tons); North, East, and Mid-Germany,
47,682 tons (48,453 tons); Saxony, 20,709 tons (21,011
tons); South Germany, 11,704 tons (11,951 tons); Saar
and Bavarian Rheinpfalz, 86,559 tons (91,866 tons);
Elsass-Lothringen, 105,599 tons (98,297 tons); and
Luxemburg, 82,095 tons (86,221 tons).

The Iron Market in Rhenish Westphalia.

Both in respect of enquiries and prices, the market has
latterly developed along more regular and quieter linesv
The war demand continues to be the chief source of
activity, but the supplies have been so abundant and the
work carried on with such persistence that, for the
time being, there are few pressing orders in hand, and
it is inevitable that the continuance of the war should
have lessened the home trade in other respects, inasmuch
as the consumption is restricted to such quantities as
are absolutely indispensable. ’ Nevertheless, the volume
of business is generally satisfactory. The movement of
prices has come to a standstill, sales for the current
quarter being, in general, at the old rates, though price
cutting will have to be reckoned with on the part of
firms who laid* in stocks at cheap prices. Ore is still
scarce, though everything possible has been done to
increase the output. The Siegerland ore mines have
acquired increased importance owing to the war; and
even the waste heaps, both in that district and in
Luxemburg and Lothringen, have been drawn upon, the
latter on account of the manganese present in the slag.
Prisoners of war are being largely employed in improv-
ing the output, the increased cost being recouped by
advanced prices. Nassau red ironstone and Luxemburg-
Lothringen minette are coming on the market in larger
quantities, in consequence of which the output of pig
iron is now sufficient to meet the demand. As before,
the full capacity of the works is being taxed to furnish
the requisite amount of high-grade pig, the selling price
of which, however, remains the same as last quarter.
The scrap market has not become any firmer, the
amount thrown on the market being superabundant.
Rolling mill scrap fetches about 61 mk.; core scrap,
56-57 mk.; and turnings, 45 mk. There is little doing
in sections, the building trade being very depressed, and
the only activity is in connection with products used by
constructional engineers and wagon manufacturers.
Further orders have come in for rails and other railway
superstructural material; but, whilst the Bavarian State.
Railways are increasing their purchases for the coming
year, those of the other State railways are smaller than
before. A few contracts have also been received from
abroad. Tram rails are neglected, but the demand for
pit rails is about on the average. Semi-manufactured
products are selling on the old terms, and in about the
usual quantities. The bar iron market is beginning to
show signs of slackness, but .the works are well booked
with orders up to the end of the year, and have been
able to keep the price at 140 mk. Possibly this will be
maintained if the production is brought into harmony
with the actual demand; and, moreover, the cost of pro-
duction is too high for any reduction in rates for the
moment. Welding iron sells freely, and prices are
firm; and 'the July prices for hoop iron are still in force,
though there is some price cutting by dealers. Whilst
army orders are less pressing than they were some time
back, the demand from neutrals is good. This applies
also to heavy 'and fine plate; but, irrespective of this,
the works have plenty to do for the army, and especially
for the naval construction department. Rolled wire has
been kept at the old price of 140 mk., though the
increased quantities on offer have had a weakening
effect, and a reduction of output is under consideration.
Drawn wire and wire nails have remained at July rates,
the lessened output being readily taken over, and the
works having sufficient orders in hand to last till the
end of the year. Tubes continue to find a good market,
and the price agreement has been prolonged until the
end of March next. Present rates for the various raw
materials and product are as follow :—Siegerland roasted
spathic ore, 245-255 mk.; raw, 195-200 mk.; Nassau red
ironstone, 225-230 mk., per 10 tons. Foundry pig No. I,
94 mk. per ton; No. III., 89 mk.; haematite pig, 115mk.;
spiegeleisen, 98 mk.; basic ingots, 102-50 mk.; open-
hearth quality, 122-50 mk.; blooms, 107-50 mk.; billets,
115 mk.; plate bars, 117-50 mk.; bars (weldihg iron),
178-183 mk. (mild steel) 140 mk.; hoop iron, 170mk.;
open-hearth quality, 190 mk.; heavy plate, 150 mk.;
boiler plate, 165 mk.; fine plate, 175-190 mk.; rolled
wire, 140 mk.; drawn wire, 170 mk.; wire nails,
180 mk.; galvanised wire, 215 mk.; galvanised barbed
wire, 275-280 mk. per ton.

Fuel Traffic on the Rhine-Herne Canal in September.

Tho total shipments of coal, coke, and briquettes in
•the direction of Ruhrort amounted to 230,310 tons
(53,317 tons in September 1914), including 23,752 tons
(9,717 tons) from Arenberg-Prosper; 51,617 tons (16,120
tons) from Bottrop; 8,453 tons from Koln-Neuessen;
30,954 tons from Mathias Stinnes; 2,909 tons (4,580
tons) from Nordstern; 24,710 tons (13,967 tons) from
Bismarck; 39,728 tons from Wanne-West; 12,249 tons
(4,103 tons) from Friedrich der Grosse; 9,577 tons
(3,180 tons) from Konig Ludwig; 1,305 tons from Konig
Wilhelm; 14,681 tons from Concordia; 3,739 tons from
Minister Achenbach; 1,743 tons from Dortmund; 2,218
tons from Victor; and 2,675 tons from Hibernia.

TRADE AND THE WAR.

An Order in Council of Tuesday last provides that the
heading “ Coal, all kinds of coke, but not including coal
allowed by the Commissioners of Customs and Excise to be
shipped as bunker coal,” shall be deleted from the list of
goods prohibited to be exported, and that there shall be
substituted therefor the heading “ Coal, all kinds, and coke
made in gas works, but not including coal allowed by the
Commissioners of Customs and Excise to be shipped as
bunker coal.”

The following announcement has been made by the War
Trade Department :—‘ ‘ In order to prevent speculative appli-
cations for licences for the export of coal and coke, it will
be necessary on and after November 1 next for each applica-
tion for a licence to be accompanied by a declaration to the
effect that the proposed shipment is in pursuance of an exist-
ing contract or in execution of a definite order for coal or
coke. A revised form of application is now in course of
preparation, and will contain the form of declaration
required.”

It is stated that reports have been sent to the Cabinet by
the Coal Mining Organisation Committee and the Railway
Executive Committee in regard to the number of men in these
services eligible for enlistment. Both reports are couched in
strong terms, and declare emphatically that, unless recruiting
is stopped at once in the mining districts and on the railways,
the efficiency of both services will be grievously imperilled.
The miners go so far as to say that, even with the withdrawal
of restrictions in regard to miners’ privileges, the present
output of coal cannot be guaranteed 'unless the recruiting of
mining labour is stopped.

As a result of representations which have lately been
made to the Coal Exports Committee in London, consider-
able changes have been instituted in order to facilitate the
supply of bunkers to neutral steamers. A new form of
application, “ Form S. 46,” is now in operation, by means
of which applications for bunker coal can be ma de to the
local Customs authorities instead of to London. This form
requires full particulars to be stated regarding the voyage
of the steamer, irrespective of whether or not the bunkers
are needed for the whole voyage. Particulars of the cargo
must also be given, and also whether part of the voyage
is to be made in ballast, and the form must be signed by
either the owner, charterer, agents, or master.

There is now, states The Times, a general movement among
owners to discourage any further rise in the high grain
freights, and that the great majority would willingly
co-operate with merchants to reduce them to a more workable
level. This attitude is now being extended to the freights for
other commodities, both imports and exports. Exports of
coal and imports of iron ore, and consequently exports of steel
and other manufactured products, are being impeded by the
high rates. The price of steam coal is now actually lower
than before the war, whereas the freights have never been so
high. The freight to some of the most important oversea coal-
ing stations amounts, indeed, to more than twice the cost
f.o.b. price of the coal. Ship owners cannot be held respon-
sible for these high freights, which are the direct result of
bidding by merchants in a depleted market, but it is most
distinctly “up to them” to try to devise some artificial means
of restricting them in view of their harmful effect on British
commerce. In tackling the high freight problem, ship owners
clearly must look to their own ranks to discover a solution.
The Government have done little more yet than intimate, to
the owners that a solution is desirable, leaving the suggestion
and consideration of remedial measures to the industry itself.
The problem is an exceedingly complex one, and the close
relations of owners with Government Departments during the
past few months have not induced the feeling that any con-
siderable increase in State control of the mercantile marine
would be in the interests of efficiency. The management of
many hundreds of requisitioned vessels has thrown an exceed-
ingly heavy burden on a single department, and, as far as
the services to the fighting forces are concerned, owners have
no doubt that the work has been highly successful. First-
class passenger liners have been used to carry rough cargo,
and first-class cargo vessels have been employed.for weeks on
end as coal hulks in a way which no owner with an eye to
the remunerative conduct of his business could possibly coun-
tenance. The methods of requisitioning vessels for Govern-
ment service have, in many owners’ opinion, often caused
unnecessary disturbance to freight markets.

The United States foreign trade is now completely domi-
nated by the vessel situation. The steadily increasing demand
for grain vessels, says Coal Age, has resulted in freights being
whirled up to absolutely prohibitive levels, except in the case
of most urgent demand. The export movement has con-
tracted in direct proportion to the increase in freight rates.
The September dumpings over the Hampton Roads piers show
a sharp decline over the previous month, while the weekly
movement out of Baltimore now occasionally gets down to
about one-fourth of the maximum. The situation is even
reflected in the coastwise freights, which are stiffer, and
slightly higher. During the month of September there was
shipped from the three ports on Hampton Roads 1,408,194
tons of coal, of which the Norfolk and Western dumped
722,670 tons, the Virginian Railway 311,674 tons, and the
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway 373,850 tons. Current
freights are as follow :—West Coast of Italy, 10-80 to 13*20
dols.; Barcelona, 10-56 to 11-52 dols.; Marseilles, 10-80 to
12 dols.; River Plate, 8-64 to 9-60 dols.

A deputation from the Association of Chambers of Com-
merce has been informed by Mr. McKenna that :—The tax
on excess profits is a temporary one; payment may be
extended over a period; losses in any year during the opera-
tion of the tax will be allowed for, and a repayment made;
the average of any two of the three years (1911, 1912, 1913)
would be allowed in place of the 1914-15 assessment; six
per cent, would be the minimum interest on capital -when
taken as the datum line—different trades could agree
together as to the rate of interest they considered fair, and
their view wrould be considered by the Board of Referees;
all moneys employed in businesses will be included as
capital.

The quarterly report of the London County Council Stores
and Contracts Committee indicates what has been done during
the quarter ended September 30 with regard to the supply of
coal and coke. The report recalls that it was reported in
June as to continuing the existing contracts with six firms
for the supply of coal for pumping stations, sludge vessels,
ferry boats, etc., and it "was decided not to enter into formal
contracts with three of the firms, as arrangements had been
made for special purchases from them. The committee has

since decided to dispense with formal contracts in the case
of Wm. Cory and Son Limited and John Hudson and Com-
pany Limited, and instead to make arrangements with these
firms month by month. The only formal contract is that
with Wm. Dowell and Company Limited, for Welsh steam
coal for Woolwich ferry. In order to supplement the ordi-
nary supplies, and to build up the requisite reserve, the com-
mittee made a special purchase of 2,600 tons of steam coal
for the Barking and Crossness outfall works. Various special
purchases were also made out of contract of coal for stock
at offices, schools, etc., to supplement the supplies from con-
tractors. In order to relieve the Wandsworth depot to some
extent, the committee has arranged that during the coming
winter some of the coal delivered to the Council direct from
collieries shall be consigned to the new Wandsworth coal
depot. The committee had decided that in all cases in which
it was practicable arrangements had been made that the con-
tracts for the supply of coal to offices, schools, etc., from
merchants and direct from collieries should contain a special
clause to the effect that if, as the result of any action by the
Government, the pit price of the coal current at the date of
the contract was reduced, the contract price payable by the
Council should be correspondingly reduced. In this connec-
tion, the committee state that notices have been served under
the Act in the case of 19 of the Council’s coal contracts for
1915-16 under schedules Nos. 87, 88, and 90 (without preju-
dice to the Council’s rights under the special clause in those
contracts in which it was inserted), with an intimation that,
notwithstanding the service of the notice, the Council would
be willing to consider any representations on the question.
No tenders having been received for the cartage of coke in
some districts, the offer of the Gas Light and Coke Company
was accepted to undertake the cartage, as well as the supply
of coke of these districts. The committee has accepted offers
of the South Suburban Gas Company and the Wandsworth
Company for the supply and delivery of coke to schools, the
station, etc., in Sydenham, and Norwood and in Tooting
and Merton respectively, as affording secondary sources of
supply in those areas when required.

A supplement to the Board of Trade Journal gives in full
the prohibitions of export in force in British India, the
self-governing dominions, Egypt, and certain other British
possessions. We extract the following particulars relating
to coal and certain other products. From British India,
Welsh coal is allowed to be exported only in quantities
sufficient for bunker requirements; other coal and coke
can only be exported to British territory; amongst the other
articles prohibited are dyes, manganese ore, mining cables,
railway material, wolfram and tungsten. The export of
coal is prohibited from New Zealand to any destination,
except with the consent of the Minister of Customs; many
other articles are comprised in the list of absolute contra-
band, including aluminium, ammonia, ferro alloys,
ingredients of explosives, lubricants, a number of ores, and
metals, etc.; fuel, other than mineral oils, is conditional
contraband. From the Union of South Africa the export of
coal and coke (excluding coal in reasonable quantities for
bunkering purposes) is only allowed to British territory, but
the Commissioner of Customs and Excise may issue con-
ditional permits for export to other destinations; exportation
of the following goods, inter alia, is prohibited, except with
the permission of the Minister of Defence :—Armour plates,
etc., explosives and the ingredients thereof, mining cables,
shipbuilding materials; exportation of the following goods
is prohibited, except with the permission of Collectors of
Customs, to destinations in the British Empire and countries
of Allies and neutrals : Benzol, coal tar and products, dyes,
manufactured fuel, blastfurnace oil, shale oil fuel, steel
wire rope, toluol, etc.; exportation of the following is.per-
mitteed to places in the British Empire : Ammonia, copper,
ferro-alloys, fuel other than mineral oils, certain metals and
their ores (tungsten, molybdenum, vanadium, nickel,
selenium, cobalt, manganese, tin, wulfenite); the export
of copper ore, haematite iron ore, magnetic iron ore, iron
ore, haematite pig iron, iron pyrites, tin-plates, and steel
wire is prohibited to all foreign ports in Europe and on the
Mediterranean and Black Seas, other than those of France,
Russia (except Baltic ports), Belgium, Spain, and Portugal.
The export of coal from Canada is prohibited to all destina-
tions, other than the United Kingdom, British possessions
and protectorates, France, Italy, Russia (except Baltic
ports), Japan, United States, when for consumption in
United States only, or shipped to specified consignees in
United Kingdom vid United States, or exported vid United
States under licence or dispensation from Canada; articles
that may only be exported to places in the British Empire
include coal tar, coal tar products and dyes, explosives,
ferro-alloys, metals and ores, blastfurnace oil, shale oil,
steel wire rope, wagons, and steel wire; there may be
shipped to ports of the Allies in Europe, including Spain
and Portugal, copper, iron, and nickel ore, railway material,
shipbuilding material, etc.; the export of tin and terne-plates
is prohibited to Denmark, Holland, Norway, and Sweden.
The export of coal and briquettes is prohibited from Egypt,
but permission may be given to ship a quantity strictly
necessary to enable a ship to reach the nearest neutral port.
From other colonies and protectorates, generally speaking,
the export of coal is permitted to places in the British
Empire, but it may be noted that the export of Australian
coal is prohibited from the Straits Settlements to all destina-
tions, other than a Malay State under his Majesty’s
protection, and the States of North Borneo and Sarawak.
The supplement does not contain the proclamations issued
by the Commonwealth of Australia, which have not as
yet been consolidated.

A late communication from United States Consul-General
George H. Scidmore, of Yokohama, Japan, explains where
the Inter-Island Navigation Company of Honolulu will
acquire the coal that will be used in the new million dollar
storage plant that they are to build at Honolulu. Mr.
Scidmore states that a big deal is reported by the Japan
Mail between the Hokkaido Tanko Kaisen Kaisha and the
Inter-Island Navigation Company at Honolulu for the supply
of 130,000 tons of Yubari coal. The first shipment has just
been made. This is the first big export of Japanese coal
to Hawaii, which has heretofore bought Australian coal.

United States Ambassador Williard has cabled the
Foreign Commerce Bureau that the fuel shortage in Spain
threatens to hamper practically every industry seriously, and
pointed out that an unlimited opportunity is offered American
coal producers. The Spanish Government has offered special
inducements to coal producers by removing all customs duties
and transportation tax.

According to the newspaper Le Democrate, Germany has
definitely refused to permit coal to be supplied to 42 Swiss
manufactories, including an important aniline dye works in
Basle. Meanwhile, the movement to emancipate Swiss indus-
tries from tihe coal famine menace is daily growing.