[Letter from Robert Markle Armstrong to William H. Louviere, April 26, 1954] Page: 1 of 4
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INTER-OFFICE LETTER
FOR MR. W. H. Louviere DATE April 26th, 1954
SUBJECT History of Market Move 6-51 2M 56438
WRITE ON BUT ONE SUBJECT TO BE USED BY ALL OFFICERS OR DEPARTMENT
ON THIS SHEET HEADS FOR INTER-OFFICE CORRESPONDENCE
From November 20th, 1953 until late January 1954, prices throughout the
country have been:
in the East, cane 8.65,
on the West Coast, cane 8.50 "- beet 8.40,
Chicago--West and South, cane 8.30 - beet 8.10,
in the City df Chicago and in the State of Wisconsin there was
actually a 100 allowance for direct carload shipments, and
some parts of the South a 10 discount under the 8.30 cane
price.
On January 29th, 1954 in Chicago-West and South, refiners generally advanced
from 8.30 to 8.50 taking bookings until February 3rd at the old price for
shipment within 30 days. However, it was generally understood that these
bookings .,ere so heavy that they constituted, in most cases, a 60 to 90 day
supply. To avoid the recognized risks inherent in these rubber bookings, we
followed our previous policy of announcing that in lieu of bookings, our
price advanced to 8.50 and we wouldr continue to take business at the old price
on a day to day basis for 30 days.
On March 3rd, when the February 3rd bookings should have been cleaned up,
there was no move on the part of the cane or beet people in Chicago-West or
the South to clean up these contracts. And, in order to be competitive we
announced an extension of our 8.30 day to day price until further notice.
On March 10th, most refiners in the South and Chicago-West advanced 150 to
8.65, some of them taking 30 day bookings at 8.50. We advanced our price
to 8.65 taking no 8.50 bookings.
On March 19th at the Texas Wholesale Grocers Convention, a number of our
customers asked us to take a position as to the clean up of the 8.30
sugar as they wanted to know where they stood. After some discussion and
consideration, we decided to be firm, announcing that we would ship at the
8.30 price through March, and would be firm at our price date of shipment
(a price that was then 8.65) after March 31st. Neither the C & H nor the
American would give the trade any definite comment as to what they would
do with the 8.30 contract balances.
We went ahead and cleaned up accordingly, doing a very heavy business in
Texas and Oklahoma, some of our customers going to the extent of borrowing
money or renting warehouse space in order to accumulate an inventory prior
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Armstrong, Robert Markle. [Letter from Robert Markle Armstrong to William H. Louviere, April 26, 1954], letter, April 26, 1954; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1133865/m1/1/: accessed June 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rosenberg Library.