ABSTRACT
In 1904 the total quantity of iron and steel imported, exported, and used at home, stated in terms of pig iron, was over 10,000,000 tons for Great Britain alone. Our home markets are usually attacked from one or other, or from all, of three sides, the more common being pig iron, blooms, and billets; the next general category being finished material, and the final category being tools and machinery of all kinds, including boilers and engines. We see that the total consumption of pig iron, including home make and imports, was 9,988,316 tons. Our ship plates we now mostly use at home, but it is only some five or six years since we were manufacturing ship plates largely for Germany, France, and other Continental countries. The products par excellence of the United States are rails, wire rods, and nails; those of Germany, billets, bars, and finished wire; those of Great Britain, tin-plates, ship plates, and galvanised sheets.
