148





RECORD   AND   GUIDE





January 22, 1916





CURRENT    BUILDING    OPERATIONS,
MATERIALS    AND    SUPPLIES





DUILDING materials are emerging
*-' from their dull season with a healthy
inquiry, but actual orders are being de¬
ferred pending clearance of railroads
and more certain delivery dates for metal
products. According to distributors in
the wholesale market the high price of
materials has not interfered with spring
delivery orders, but there are some re¬
tailers who are convinced that the reason
building projects as shown by plan fil¬
ings so far this year make no better com¬
parisons with those ruling in January of
last year, is directly traceable to hesi¬
tancy on the part of speculative builders.
Mr. Howland's Opinion.

Francis N. Howland, President of the
Building Material Dealers .-Association of
New York and former president of the
Building Material Exchange, expressed
the thought of dealers when he said:

"The manufacturers of building ma¬
terials ought not be deluded by appear¬
ances of present building prosperity. It
is still in the middle of winter and while
the inquiry is good the prospective build¬
ers for the most part are merely feeding
the market. High prices of building
materials will be sure to frighten off
the speculative builder and the big
operator who contemplates construction
is going to be tied up by non-arrival of
steel and other metals entering into big
building construction. It is all right to
excuse the present tendency to inflate
market prices of building commodities
on the plea that supplies are low, labor is
costing more and fuel is costly and has
to be laid in now to anticipate possible
coal shortages in the spring, but unless
the manufacturers heed the advice of wise
heads among them they are going to
stifle what building demand does exist
and will end by having their stocks on
their hands.

"We have an operation on 28th street
that was started last September, but we
have not been able to get a pound ot
steel to the job since then. That is only
one instance, but it shows just what is
happening in all departments of con¬
struction. It is no time to check build¬
ing. Quite on the other hand it would
be most advantageous all around to meet
the situation half way."

Stiffness Well Justified,

On the other hand, there is a stiffness
to market prices that seems well justi¬
fied, according to a brick manufacturer.
"We are laying in coal now in anticipa¬
tion of difficulty of getting it later in the
season when we open up," said a Hudson
river manufacturer yesterday. "Suppose
a strike does occur in April at the coal
mines, where would the price of com¬
mon brick go with the scanty supply on
hand now and the still lower reserves
after the building season opens, espec¬
ially if we were unable to get coal. Coal
bought at winter prices costs more than
when it is bought far in advance, but it
has to be stored and somebody has to
pay the additional cost.

Portland cement exports continue to
strengthen, thereby helping to further
stiffen domestic prices by further drain¬
ing the mill supplies. The demand on
Lehigh Valley mill capacities for the first
twenty days in January is three times as
great as it was in January of last year.
Two orders for Portland cement for ex¬
port are now being filled totalling in all
more than 20,000 barrels. There are in¬
quiries for appro.ximately 3,000,000 bar¬
rels  now  pending.

Plate and window glass have sharply
advanced.    In  some   cases   the   change





amounts to between 20 and 30 per cent,
upward. Window glass has stiffened on
quotations here. Further increases are
expected. Linseed oil has gone far above
normal prices, being quoted today av
73 and 76 cents a gallon. Structural
steel has passed the twenty cent mark
and is now quoted at tidewater on a
2.169c level. Tin plate is expected to
move up to $4. Comon brick from the
Hudson district is now quoted at $8.50,





but the supply here is low, and the Hud¬
son has eight inches of ice above Haver¬
straw with little chance of it breaking up
for five days at least. Raritan river
brick is out of the market as far as the
Sayre & Fisher Company is concerned,
with relation to new business. It is not
tcxking orders until it has caught up with
pending contract deliveries. The Staten
Island plants are well filled and no Con¬
necticut brick is available  here.





COMMON BRICK.





Ot,





Cold Weather Halts Riding and Checks
Advance.

^N Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
_        was  too  cold  even for  teams  to

work, and the Hudson was frozen from
Haverstraw north, thereby effectively
shutting off all supplies from that
quarter. Sayre & Fisher reported that it
was out of the market for new business
until it was able to catch up with de¬
liveries on present contracts. The
Newark situation remained dull. Prices
were without change. TheJlO level has
apparently vanished, for the time being,
although there are some who believe that
the present $8.50 and $9.50 level for open
and covered barges will be of short dur¬
ation. Thursday it was possible to lay
brick, but it was not possible to get more
down the river. Therefore upon the de¬
pletion of the present supply the price
may be expected to advance.

Official   transactions   tor   Hudson   River   brick

covering the week ending Thursday, Jan. 20, in

the wholesale market,  with  comparison  for the

corresponding period last year,  follow:

1916.

Open Barges, left over. Friday A. M.,

Jan. Ii—28.

Arrived.     Sold.

Friday,   Jan.   14..................    1          0

Saturday,   Jan.   15................    0           0

Monday,   Jan.   17.................    0           1

Tue=day,   Jan.   IS.................    0           0

Wednesday.   Jan.   19..............    0           0

Thursday,  Jan. 20................    0           2

Total...........................    1            3

Reported en route, Friday, Jan. 21—0.
Condition of market, firm.    Prices:   Hudsons.
$S   and   $S..JO;   covered   Hud=ons.   $9   and   $!)..)0
asked;  Raritans. .?.S and $8.50  (wholesale dock.
X    Y);    (for   dealers'   prices   add   profit   and
cartage);  Newark, .$8    and $S..50  fyard).   Car¬
goes left over Friday -A.. M., Jan. 21—JO.    Cov¬
ered   sold,   8.     Covered.   2.     Left   over   covered
barges, 16.    Open barges left over, 24.
1915.
Left over, Friday A. M., Jan. 15—2.





Friday,   Jan.   15.....

Saturday, Jan. 16...
Monday, Jan. IS....
Tuesday. Jan. 19....
Wfdiipsday, Jan. 20.
Thursday, Jan. 21...







ived.




Sold





0




n





0




n





0




M





9




.3





0




0





0




1





Total...........................    9           5

Condition of market, weak. Prices: Hudson,
S.'i 75 to $6. firm; Newark, yard. $6.75 to $7.2.i,
nominal. Left over Friday A. M., Jan. 22—f>9.
Covered. 5. Covered sold, 2. Lett over cov¬
ered barges, 5.

OFFICIAL   SUMMARY.

Left  over,  Jan.  1, 1916....................    29

Total No. bargeloads arrived, including left

over bargelnads. Jan. 1 to Jan. 20, 1916.. 89
Tntil   No.   bargeloads   sold   Jan.   1   to   Jan

20,  1916   ................................    49

Total No. bargeloads left over Jan. 21. 1916 40
Total No. bargeloads left over Jan. 1. 1915. 64
Total No. bargeloads arrived, including left

over. Jan. 1 to Jan. 21, 1915.............    79

Totnl No. bargeloads sold Jan. 1 to Jan, 21,

1915....................................

Total No. bargeloads left over Jan. 22, 191o.





20
59





PLAN FILINGS.





WppU. ending.
Jan. 22. 1^15.       Jan. 21, IHlfi.
Ko.

Manhattan.....        3

Bronx..........        0

Brooklyn.......     o4

Queens.........      40

Richmond......     11

Totals........llT    $1,588,250    210    -SI .?.?.1."T7

Last week, 207.    Estimated value, $2.SS4.(.V10.







C-st.




No.




Cost.





$sso.ooo




o




S24 noo





22J 0"0




8




180,200





41''.fi50




W




779.400





97,750




8.3




326.207





2.3.800




27




21.570





THB  RECORD  AXD  GUIDE QUOTATIONS   ARE  ACCEPTED  AS   OFFICIAI.  BY





Portland Cement—Demand for Port¬
land cement out of the Lehigh and Hud¬
son Valley is about three times what it
was during the first three weeks in Jan¬
uary, 1914, and about 10 per cent greater
than it was in 1913. One Lehigh Valley
company has an order and is shipping
300 car loads of cement for export. An¬
other company has an export order for
20.000 barrels. It began shipments on
this order this week.

The Lehigh Portland Cement Com¬
pany has taken an option on the Acme
Portland Cement plant at Catskill, same
to expire on April 1. This company re¬
cently took an option on the Old Do¬
minion plant in Virginia, following fail¬
ure of the Hager Portland Cement Com-
panj' to take it up and late in December
added its capacity amounting to 1.000,-
000 barrels to its already large resources.
The capacity of the Acme plant is about
the same as the Old Dominion.

Col. Trexler, President of the Lehigh
at Allentown, Pa., would not speak for
publication and his secretary was not
communicative. The negotations involv¬
ing these two plants recalls the fact that
the Cayuga Lake cement plant has re¬
cently been newly equipped by the J. G.
White Engineering Company of this city,
and there are rumors that this plant may
have new associations.

Glass—."Ml window glass is higher in
price. The advance reported this week
shows an aggregate sain of between 20
and 30 per cent. The big distributors
look upon the present change as merely
temporary. They give the cause of the
advance as tremendous domestic and
export demand, higher cost of fuel and
labor and scarcity of raw materials. The
new prices will be found in the price
talile adjoining this department.

Structural Steel—All metal products
have advanced in price. Structural
steel beams, tees, zees, bars, etc. ad¬
vanced from 2.069 to 2.169 this week.
The price of tin plate is expected to
move from $3.75 to $4 a box between
now and the first of the month. Metal
reinforcement of all kinds is stiffly held
and deliveries are from three weeks to
two months late.

Linseed Oil—Prices of this commodity
have gone to new high levels. At the
first of the month this material was
being sold here on a 68 and 68 cent basis.
Today it is quoted here at 73 and 76
cents. The seed situation is acute at
Duluth and no one can foretell what
future movement the price will take.

Lumber—Inventories are being taken
now at the lumber yards in this district
so  the  buying movement  is  light.

Current Prices—Attention is called to
the accompanying price table. Price
changes are shown this week in common
brick, linseed oil and structural steel. In
the former there is a slight drop. In
linseed oil there is a sharp rise and also
in structural steel. The biggest advance
is in glass, both plate and window,
amounting to between 20 and 30 per
cent.
BpiLDING  MATERIAIj  EXCHANGES.