For many years three concerns affiliated with the German metal combines (Merton Co. and Metallgesellschaft, of Frankfort-on-the-Main, and Aaron Hirsch, of Halberstadt) have been active in the copper business of the United States. Their activity has been confined to selling of copper produced in this country, and to ownership and selling of copper produced in foreign countries but brought to the United States for smelting and refining. One small refinery is or was owned by this group in the United States, and two smelters, treating mainly foreign ores. It also owns smelters in Mexico and South America, and had close connections with two large refineries in New Jersey, so that it sold all the electrolytic copper produced by one plant and an important part of the production of the other plant.
German Control of American Copper.
—The exact German ownership of these concerns was disclosed during the war by the work of the Alien Property Custodian, and was as follows: (1) American Metal Co., with an issued capital of $7,000,000, of which the German holdings amounted to $3,336,000, or close to 50 per cent.; these holdings were taken over by the United States authorities; (2) L. Vogelstein & Co., of which 80 per cent. of the stock was held by Germans (A. Hirsch & Sohn) and 15 per cent. by L. Vogelstein, a naturalized American citizen; (3) Beer, Sondheimer & Co., entirely German owned. The government seized the two last-named concerns.
The American Metal Co. markets the copper of the Old Dominion, East Butte, Shannon, Penn. Mining Co. and Ducktown Sulphur, Coal & Iron companies. Blister copper 99 per cent. pure is purchased on contract from the first-named four companies by the American Metal Co. This copper is refined for the American Metal Co. by the Nichols Copper Co., and the finished product sold to the trade by the American Metal Co. The Ducktown Sulphur, Copper & Iron Co. sells all of its production, as copper matte, to the American Metal Co., which has it treated and sells the finished product. In this manner 58,820,173 pounds was controlled through sale by the American Metal Co. in 1917. In addition, considerable domestic custom ore and a large amount of copper imported from Canada (Granby), South America and Mexico is handled by the American Metal Co. in the same way. Such imported copper totals up to three times as much as the domestic copper so controlled.
So far as domestic copper is concerned this situation will be corrected. The Nichols Copper Co. is free to refine this copper and sell it or turn it back to the producers for sale; it does this latter for Phelps-Dodge and Miami. It can be assumed that control through selling will cease as regards the 58,820,173 pounds cited above and also as regards Granby’s production—about 50,000,000 pounds.
The American Metal Co. may be sold to American interests,[115] thus clearing up the situation in imported copper to some extent. Certain Mexican and Chilean properties owned by the American Metal Co. will perhaps not be sold, and such properties can be considered as likely always to be German owned.
[115] The German holdings in the American Metal Co. are reported sold to an American syndicate in which L. Vogelstein participated.
The American Metal Co. owns the Balbach electrolytic refinery, and from treatment of scrap and imported copper (Chilean and Japanese blister and copper) at that plant obtains and sells about 50,000,000 pounds of refined copper per annum.
The concern of L. Vogelstein & Co. lost its chief hold on American copper production in 1915. Up to that time L. Vogelstein & Co. worked very closely with group 8 (United States Smelting, Refining & Mining Co.). The output of the United States Smelting Refining & Mining Co. mines and smelters was sold by Vogelstein as well as the output of its electrolytic refinery. But since 1915 this American-owned enterprise itself sells all the copper produced by its own mines and smelters.
But Vogelstein still controls the sale of the copper treated at the plant of the United States Metals Refining Co.,[116] over and above what is produced by the United States Smelting, Refining & Mining Co. from its own mines and smelters. This remaining copper consists in part of imported copper, and in part of the output of the Consolidated Arizona Smelting Co., which is an American-owned enterprise. The output was large in 1917 (about 20,000,000 pounds) but three-fourths of it was ore from the United Verde Extension mine. The United Verde Extension has since completed its own smelter and no longer turns over a part of its copper output to Vogelstein through the Consolidated Arizona Smelting Co. The output of United Verde (group 6) also was formerly sold by Vogelstein, but now is sold by the owner of the mine.