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632 RECORD AND GUIDE October 5, 1912. BUILDING MATERIALS. Portland Cement and Wire Products Prices Advanced This Week. What the Consumer May Hope For as the Result o( the Interstate Commerce Commission's Investiga¬ tion Into Freight Charges on Structural Commodi¬ ties—General Market News. IN view of the general stiffening in prices of all buiiding materials, con¬ sumers will be more or less interested in knowing that the Interstate Commerce Commission has ordered an investigation of the rates, practices, rules and regu¬ lations governing the transportation of cement, lumber, slate, brick, iron and steei, and their products, and, in fact, any and all materials enter¬ ing into buiiding construction originat¬ ing from points outside of New Tork •State. The scope of the investigation will cover all points and roads east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio and Potomac Rivers, known as Official Classification Territory. It is natural for the consumer, as well as the dealer, to hope that the result of the investigation will be some sort of legi'Slalion which will materially cut down the cost of transporting basic buiiding materials from points outside of New York State on the general suppo¬ sition that railroad freight rates in gen¬ eral and those affecting buiiding ma¬ terials in particular are unjustifiably heavy. As a matter of fact it is hardly to be presumed in the light of general price conditions of the day present that the dealer or the consumer will benefit par¬ ticularly from the investigation. High wages 'that are now paid to railroad em¬ ployees, general demands of freight hand¬ lers for increased pay, the higher cost of carting these materials in congested cities, the inability to stack or store ma¬ terials where realty values are so higli as to make storage charges prohibitive on reserve supplies of bulky materials, and the fluctua'ting demand in a big com¬ munity, such as the metropolitan dis¬ trict; present such widely varying prob¬ lems to the distributor and dealer as to make the actual cost of hauling materials from mill, kiln or factory, more of an incident in price-making than as a primary factor. Even though stores are established such as the Carnegie Steel Company maintains in Waverly, N. J., the cost of unloading, storing, reloading and carting from stores to job remove the little chance there originally might have been to reduce building ma'terial prices. As it actually works out in practice the consumer pays little more for his material for the convenience of having goods delivered when he wants them and making sure that there will be no delay arising from strikes, railroad blockades, weather conditions or other causes, which he is likely to encoun'ter when purchas¬ ing direct from the mill. The building material interests are very much inclined to doubt whether practical results will follow from this in¬ vestigation. It will be interesting, how¬ ever, to watch the results. Briek. The Hudson River common brick mar¬ ket is quiet, with few takers at the new $7.25 level. The large number of unsold barges on hand, numbering in all twenty- two on Monday, presented a situation to the dealer which was anything but con¬ ducive to prompt buying. Barges still at distributing points, are temporarily held up because of inability of certain con¬ cerns to get steel. This is a situation which is beginning to embarrass some building material interests, but it is sig¬ nificant that only those who did not heed the Record and Guide's warning of last spring about the future of the steel mar¬ ket, are tied up now. North River brick are being taken on the $6.75 level, with very few actual sales at $7.25. The same is true of the Raritan River department. The situation on ali the brick yards in the metropolitan district is such as to command the attention of prospective pur¬ chasers in this market. Cold weather, coupled with rain, has made drying diffi¬ cult. In addition it is driving the im¬ ported labor south. This condition is al¬ most sure to bring about an early clos¬ ing down of most of the Hudson River, and some of the Jersey plants, unless warm weather comes in the next two or three weeks. It is, therefore, extremely desirable that purchasers be made irre¬ spective of the apparent supply at the wholesale and distributing docks. Transax2tions on the market covering Hudson River common brick for last week with comparisons for the corresponding week on 1911 follow: 1912. Lett Over, Sept. 21—10. Arrived. Sold. Monday .........................15 13 Tuesday ......................... 3 6 Wednesday ...................... 4 2 Thursday ........................11 12 Friday .......................... 9 4 Saturday ......................,-.14 7 Totals .........................56 44 Condition of market easy. Current prices, $6.75 to $7.25 (Wholesale dock New York. Add cartage and dealers' profit for retail prices.) Left over September 28—22. 1911. Lelt Over, Sept. 23—17. Arrived. Sold. Monday .........................13 4 Tuesday ......................... 2 6 Wednesday ...................... 5 3 Thursday ........................ 7 7 Friday .......................... 6 2 Saturday.......................... 8 2 Totals ......................... 41 24 Condition of market dull. Prices, $6 to $6.50. Raritans, $5.75 to $6.25. In the corresponding week in 1910 the arrivals were 67, and the sales 65, at prices ranging from $5.25 to $5.50 per M. for Hudson River common. Portland Cement. Portland cement in this market is now quoted at $1.58 to $1.63, representing 90 cents in bulk at the mill. This is an evidence of strengthening in the cement market and brings the mill price up to a position higher than in 1908. It is of interest to note that average mill prices from 1903, which was the latest high water market for this commodity at mill, have been as follows: . 1903....................$L24 1904.....................98 1905.....................96 1906....................1.13 1907....................1,11 1908.....................85 1909.....................81 1910.....................80 1911.....................70 1912........................ It is probable that the average price for 1912 will be about 78 cents, in view of the fact that another advance of five cents a barrel is expected to be an¬ nounced by about the middle of next month, if the present tremendous demand continues, which at this time seems en¬ tirely probable. The gain in production of Portland cement in 1912 over that of 1911 probably will be not over 5 per cent. This is due largely to increased capacities of certain companies. The estimate is based upon building and engineering construc¬ tion reports and quantities required as shown by Dodge and other reports for the current year and the fact that mills are not carrying large reserve stock. One authority, in speaking of the ce¬ ment situation this week, declared that this advance is in no sense arbitrary, hut is based entirely upon current demand and probable requirements incidental to subway construction work in this city, and prolonged demand for Portland cement based upon the present inability of the construction steel companies to turn out finished shapes in proportion to the volume of new business being re¬ ceived. The reasons as explained in this de¬ partment last week for the increase of the price of common brick in the market is also applicable to the Portland cement price situation, and therefore, corrobo¬ rates the Record and Guide's advice to the effect that building materials this winter will all assume stronger price tones. Lumber. Considerable interest centered this week in the shingle situation in Seattle. Wash. Prices out there have advanced sharply during August and September. They seem to have reached their limit and are well sustained at the present high level, or $2.15 for stars and $2.50 for clears. Shingle logs are holding steady and flrm at $14, so that it is en¬ tirely probable that there will be marked upward movement in red cedar shingle in this market in the very near future. The shortage of cars from the far West is also adding to the situation which is almost sure to hasten heavier prices be¬ fore long. In the general w^holesale lumbert market, quotations are all very flrm, especially on hard woods. The capacity of door and sash mills, to turn out finished products that are required in building operations now under way is severely taxed. Generally speaking the door factories have never been busier in their history. The sash and blind mills are very active on special orders. The soft pine stock door and sash In¬ quiry Is normal. The total estimated cost of building op- ■ eratlons now finishing in New York City is $83,000,000. This does not include small suburban construction work in Queens, Brooklyn, Westchester or East Jersey. Of this total $53,609,200 covers representa¬ tive office, loft, store, hotel, apartment, power house, armory, museum, dwelUng, institutionally, hospital, school, ware¬ house, theatre, flreproof construction. Special mill work is reqiiired in excep¬ tional volume for this business which ac¬ counts in large measure for the activity of most of the mills in this district. Some mills have their capacity taken up to January 1, while others report en¬ gagements of output well into the first of March. Mills outside of New Tork which sup¬ ply this territory report that they are running behind their orders. Especially is this true of veneered door department. Prices, however, are stiff and consumers may expect a gradual strengthening of lists. Coal. Statements of the coal consumers and distributors in this market do not con¬ form in many respects to the position taken by the coal operators, who say that they are mining more coal than they can sell at this time. Despite this fact the price of domestic size coal is very much heavier today than it was at this time last year on the ground that coal is scarce and even commercial sizes are not procurable in volumes anything like that called for by consumers. The Record and Guide learned this week that there are now 700,000 tons of unsold surplus stocks above the normal consumption and that all talk of there being a shortage of anthracite coal is largely the result of car shortage, which at worst can he only temporary. The coal trafflc is heavier than any¬ thing the operators have known. Through the first twenty-four days of September anthracite shipments were 169,000 tons ahead of September, 1911. The bitumin¬ ous shipments were 171,000 tons ahead of last year, or an average of 34,000 tons daily above the shipments of a year ago. This is an indication that the manufac¬ turers of the country are anticipating capacity schedules well into the first quarter of next year. There is also n lively inquiry for floor covering, but this is not considered excep¬ tional at this time, owing to the fact that the leasing market, especially in the downtown section, has not shown signs of being exceptionally active this fall. Man¬ agers, however, are expecting a very ac¬ tive leasing market next spring, and are therefore making inquiries for building materials and alteration supplies for de¬ livery after January 1. when it is ex¬ pected that for about thirty days better concessions will be more easily procur¬ able than any other item within the next twelve months. Building Supplies. Building managers expressed consider¬ able interest this week in the lubricating oil market, because all departments there¬ in are steady. In the vegetable depart¬ ment cocoanut oil had only a routine trade; corn oil is quiet;' animal oils are easier in tone; the market for lard oil shows no appreciable change in general position, and on fish oil there was prac¬ tically no change in the menhaden situ¬ ation. The market for refined petroleum oii shows a tendency to Increase, and for this reason the attention of building man¬ agers was attracted to the whole oil and lubricant market, because any movement in petroleum is almost sure to be fol¬ lowed by a similar movement in other oils. Particularly is this true of linseed oil. Buiiding managers who watch the linseed oii market carefully are those who buy good paint theN cheapest. Just at this time linseed oil is quoted at 68 and 69 cents, American seed oil raw city, and for that reason managers are again ac¬ tively in the market for paints. Managers are also watching with con¬ siderable care the copper market, be¬ cause fluctuations here affect sheeting and flashing, which they use in large quanti¬ ties. For that reason the receipt of news that standard copper was stiffer under the Balkan stringency, although the tendency among them caused it to move actively into the market until the expected action more completely i conforms to their idea of what copper | prices should be. Current finished copper and brass prices are held in this market .. at 23 and 24 cents base for large lots. I F\ill extra for small quantities. Copper f wire is firm at 18%al9 cents base carload lots at the mill. Seamless copper tubes are at the mill. Seamless copper tubes are held at 24a25 cents base, and brass ditto 21a22 cents per pound base. I