IRONFOUNDERS DEPENDENT ON SCRAP

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 17, 15 October 1918, Page 2

IRONFOUNDERS DEPENDENT ON SCRAP

PIG IRON HOARDED LIKE GOLD,

There is perhaps no manufacturing; trade hit harder by the war than the iron trade. Every belligerent nation is guarding jits output of iron ore with intense jealousy, with the result that distant parts of the world fiom the war zone are not being considered at all. This has been tho case for over two years.past, and in eoino instances the pinch is being acutely felt, and the work accepted by some foundries has to bo estimated on tho visible supply of iron that may bo available for tho ■ job. Speaking to a Wellington ironfounder yesterday, a Dominion iyprosentative ■ was informed that comparatively little pig iron had been imported into New Zealand for two years past, and that, ae the result, it was being hoarded like gold to mix with tho scrap iron that came along. Thanks to. fortuitous circumstances, there had been a good deal of.'scrap' iron available at. a price. Hid there not been, most of tho foundries would havo had to close down by this time. Ho had placed a. big order for Australian pig iron two years ago, but up till the present the order had not been complete'!, and there was no immediate prospect of its fulfilment. A small quantity had como from India, but that had long since been used up, and there were no further supplies available from that source. Tho war zones of Mesopotamia —there were now big iron works at Basra—and Palestine would probably mako a. big drain upon tho output of Indian pig iron. Questioned as to what prices were being paid for scrap iron in 'Wellington; our informant said that he had paid as high as £7 10s. per ton for good scrap stuff that they nsed to bo ablo to buy before the war at £2 per ton. The old fire-bars on the steamers uted to be the perquisite of the firemen, and they- could bo purchased for os. a ton, or "something like that, but oven for old fire-bars the price was now pretty solid.' I