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18 MARINE REVIEW. MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL IN GREAT BRITAIN. [Special correspondence to the Marine Review.] Glasgow, Scotland, Jan. 21.--Statistics of the Scotch iron trade which are now being issued are of peculiar interest in view of recent develop- ments. What may be called the most striking features of the trade in 1901 were the cessation of deliveries from the United States, the appear- ance of pig iron from Canada and steel plates from Germany, and a decrease in the production and an increase in the consumption of pig iron in Scotland. That the consumption of pig iron should 'have increased here is not surprising considering the enormous work at the ship yards. But the increase has not been in the consumption of Scotch iron, although more than half the present output of the Scotch furnaces is in steel-making qualities. There was a decrease in the output of 39,906 tons, and a decrease in the consumption of Scotch iron in Scotland of 128,859 tons. But on the other hand there was a large increase in the consumption of English iron, and there was a new consumption of Canadian iron. Let me set forth the position thus: STATISTICS OF SCOTCH PIG IRON. 1901, 1900, Inc. Dec. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Pigatcton ogi. i oo Seles ee ke ¥,113:990 -1;153,896° ..... 39,906 Consumption: In foundries ...... 7. 160,100 290,508. ..... 135,379 In steel and iron works 675,773 669,253 6,520 ...... Shipments: Foreign ....:.........5. 118090 SCSI" ; ix... 39,727 Coastwise ir... G54 ees a9 $59,357 179,682)... -. 14,325 A otal deliveries. .evih.c aes se 4,113,979 1,296,290: 3. 182,911 Stocks to Dec. 31: Te Watrait stores ..3. ee . 58,324 N20 eae 12,962 On tigers Yards ..25...5... 16,000 63,000 13,073... Average furnaces in blast..........-.. 80.7 6300 ccs ee Average per furnace per week, tons.. 268 B05 2 ee Average price of warrants..........- 53s 9p O)s 4p ee It will be seen that the deliveries were just 611 tons short of the output, so that is the net addition to the stock, although makers wind up the year with 13,578 tons more, and the public warrant stores with 12,962 tons less than at the end of 1900. The above table shows a decrease of 135,379 tons of Scotch iron con- sumed in the foundries and an increase of only 6,520 tons consumed in the malleable iron and steel works. How then were the increased demands of the ship builders for material met? Not by our importation of mate- rial from the United States, and only to a comparatively small extent by the importation of steel plates from Germany, but by the importation of pig iron from England and Canada. The following was the actual con- sumption of pig iron in Scotland: 1901. 1900. : Tons. Tons, Reoteh OW oa. fos il Ss cas peels oes 835,932 ° 964,791 Clevelesd fol 6. : cc. oe re os oe 456,000 278,000 MOUTOerand 1TOW foc ie ck be ee ccc ee dee 114,000 169,000 Ara Go eee tes DONO 2 ac ks ee eo oe 1,458,932 1,411,791 The net increase in the consumption, it will be seen, is 47,141 tons, and thus it closely approximates the quantity imported from Nova Scotia and one wonders from what quarter the want would have been supplied had the Cape Breton furnaces not been ready to ship. This iron is not suitable for steel making except by the basic process, and there are at present only four basic furnaces in Scotland. The iron ore import from Cumberland is all hematite for steel making.. What we import from Cleveland is partly hematite, but mainly foundry qualities. And the reason we have been able to absorb so much Cleveland iron in the past year has been because it has ranged F. O. B. from 8 to 18 shillings per ton lower than Scotch. The usual difference is 5 to 6 shillings per ton, and the larger margin last year was caused partly by a corner in Scotch' warrants and partly by a decline in the foreign demand for 'Cleveland iron, in consequence of which the stocks increased and the market dropped. But perhaps we should have been compelled to import Cleveland or other iron even had the market conditions been less favorable, because our smelters found it more profitable to put their furnaces on to hematite for the steel manufacturers than to make ordinary iron for the foundries. At any rate forty-six out of eighty-one furnaces in blast have been on steel making iron. I think the following will sum up the situation clearly as far as Scotch pig iron is concerned: SUMMARY OF SCOTCH PIG IRON. ee ; Tons. oe nat ce beet ns thd e eee ene eechs 134,646 ki ec ce eels we oe ewes coe ens 1,113,990 1,248,636 Deliveries: : Tons. FOrei gn) oie ee seen eee e ee ee ee ee 118,090 UOVAGEWISG vices its os fe 159,357 op ce reln cece nee se se ces wey 160,159 OC SRG) WOtK GS CLE. i cece enn e tee see ecceres 675,773 1,113,379 Stock, Dec. 31, 1901: ede a OP i oa tees ve tree eee 1 rl BOO DAES 60 ee eee es 76,933 ¢. 185,257 The output of Cleveland is not known with the same precision, as the makers there:do not afford any information, but from the quantity of ore known to, have heen imported, and the quantity taken from the local mines, ajfairly, approximate estimate can be made; and the estimate is that the production athe, Cleveland furnaces last year did not éxceed 3,000,000 tons and probably was not more than 2,800,000 tons. In the meantime we may take it as 2,750,000 tons, as compared with 3,110,000 tons in 1900. Notwithstanding this decrease in the make, the public stock has increased in one year from 57,802 tons to 140,676 tons, and the quantity on warrant at Middlesboro is nearly two and a half times as much as the quantity on warrant at Glasgow--a quite unprecedented position until last year. What stock is held by the Cleveland makers is not known, but it is believed to be less than a year ago, the surplus having gone into store. There should not, of course, have been any surplus on a make so reduced had the home and foreign demand remained unbroken, but the foreign shipment from Middlesboro dropped from 780,421 tons in 1900 to 494,055 tons in 1901. To some extent this was compensated by the increased demand from Scotland, which helped to raise the coastwise shipments from 211,557 tons in 1900 to 466,730 tons in 1901; but the total of all deliveries by sea fell short of 1900 by 31,000 tons. That, again, would not account for an increase of 83,220 tons in the public stocks, so that there must have been a large decrease in the local consumption, notwithstanding the activity of ship building on the Tyne, Wear and Tees. A notable development in the Cleveland district, however, has been the adoption by Bell Bros,, Ltd., of a new process for treating ordinary Cleveland iron, and converting it into steel. Of steel-making iron there would be about 750,000 tons included in the Cleveland output above named and about 60 per cent. of the Scotch output. In Cumberland and West Lancastershire the production of pigs from native hematite ore was 1,309,700 tons, or 103,640 tons less than in 1900. There the furnaces are much larger than in the Glasgow district and turned out an average of about 713 tons each per week. The decrease in the make is attributed to scarcity of raw material, dear labor, and drought during the summer months, which compelled some of the works to close altogether for a time. But #f there had been more made it would not have been absorbed, for the foreign shipments fell off by 119,119 tons, the coastwise shipments by 150,425 tons, and the local consumptions by 6,624 tons. The shipments to the continent were less than one-third of those of 1900, so extreme is the depression there; and the shipments to -- Glasgow were 55,000 tons less than in 1900--not because Scotland was consuming less steel-making iron, but was supplying her wants otherwise. The stocks in the Cumberland public stores were reduced 5,322 tons in 1901 and stand now at only 53,968 tons. This is practically all the reserve of hematite iron there is in the country, so any sudden expansion in the demand for steel material would create something of a wobble. To sum up, the production of pig iron in the three great ship building centers has been as under: 1901. 1900. Tons. Tons. Seetland = sn ee 1,113,990 1,153,896 Cleveland. 638 ea as sc Sos 2,750,000 3,110,000 Cumberland @. 3 ee as 1,309,700 1,413,340 TOtAl 5,173,690 5,687,236 5,173,690 Decrease i 19003... 2 ee 518,546. _ This, of course, does not represent all the production of the United Kingdom, but only of those districts concerned with the ship building industry and the chief export trade. As to exports to foreign countries _ there were: : 1901. : 1900. From Tons. Tons. Gil 118,090 157,817 Glevelane ee 494.055 780.421 Cimber id aed. es 56,474 175,593 Re cs 668,619 1,113,881 668,619 Pee ls ead 445,212 The total exports of pig iron from the United Kingdom in 1901 were 839,223 tons. On the other hand 195,409 tons were imported (as against 175,393 tons in 1900), of which 69,234 tons were from Sweden, 35,272 tons from the United States and 90,903 tons from Canada, Spain and other countries. The total quantity from Canada would be about 55,000 tons . or so, of which 53,000 tons came to Scotland. Then we also imported - 98,100 tons of bar and rod iron, principally from Belgium and Germany, and 182,884 tons unmanufactured steel, principally from Germany, both figures being in excess of 1900; but we re-exported 12,400 tons of the foreign iron and 1,723 tons of the steel, which only came to us for pur- poses of transhipment. As showing the decline in prices, I give the prices of the several classes of pig iron warrants at the beginning and at the end of 1901: Warrants. Jan., 1901. Dec., 1901. Scotch. SR AIGA AY, : 58s 6p 49s Clevelagde i a 50s 43s 3p Cumpeiage 2 63s 55s 6p The greatest decline has been in Scotch, which has been relatively -- dearer than others most of the year; and makers say it is now below the cost of production. The steamship Strombus, one of the Shell company's vessels, which -- has burnt liquid fuel since she was built, has just finished an eastern . voyage at Hamburg, having burnt liquid fuel with great economy and suc- cess. This vessel goes from Hamburg to Thameshaven to replenish her oil bunkers from the stock there preparatory to commencing her voyage to Texas, where she will take on a cargo of liquid fuel, in succession to the steamship Cardium, also engaged in the same trade. It is stated that a reduction of 30 per cent. has been obtained in the Strombus with liquid fuel as compared with coal, not countin i bs , g the economy of reduction of stokehold hands and increased deadweight for cargo. ' ! } ° : % Bay ty Henry Komtzky, naval 'architect and mari Veeavorl lH : , arine surveyor; has opened am office in the Bourse (room 416), Philadelphia. ve fe. ebro. yao