206 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT THADE.
The following combines supplement the Roheisenverband rather
than compete with it:
(1) Siegerlinder Eisenstein Syndikat (Siegerland Iron Ore Syndicate).
 This syndicates the products of the mines of the Siegerland
 district, which, owing to their high percentage of phosphorus,
are distinctive.
(2) Vereinigung Oberschlesischer Hiitten (Association of Upper
Silesian Smelters). This unites the syndicated mines of the upper
Silesian industrial district.
(3) ‘Schrottvereinigung (Scrap Iron Syndicate). This combines
10 firms and was formed to regulate the prices 8 scrap iron.:
(4) Ostdeutsches Roheisen Syndikat (East German Pig Tron
Syndicate). This is a syndicate for the crude-iron production of
east Germany. °
(5) Rhbeinisch-Westfiilische Schweisseisen Vereinigung (Rhenish-Westphalian
 Malleable Iron Syndicate).
The relations of the Roheisenverband to other business interests in
Germany are close, inasmuch as the great firms, who not only mine
ore and coal but also smelt ore and make steel, are members of all
the syndicates controlling these various products.
The link between the coal and iron syndicates is formed by the
so-called smelter mines (Hiittenzechen).
For the domestic market, iron is marketed through five dealers’
unions, dividing the German-Luxemburg territory into five parts,
which are almost exactly similar to those for steel. (See Pt. IT, p. 32.)
As the ores of the different mines and therefore the pig iron of the
different blast furnaces vary more or less, the large foundries are
desirous always of having their pig and spiegel from the same blast
furnaces in order to have as nearly as possible a uniform raw material.
 About 20 per cent of the entire pig-iron production of Germany
goes into castings. The supplying of a uniform product to the customers
 of the union is, therefore, the main factor of the domestic
sales problem, although price is an important element and is in-Auenced
 to a marked extent by foreign competition in connection with
transportation facilities.
For the foreign market the syndicate has fixed the export quotas of
members so as to prevent unnecessary dumping. It controls about 97
per cent of all pig-iron exports. Export competition from German
firms outside the organization is of no importance. The Pig Iron
Syndicate, like the other strong cartels in Germany, maintains a firm
export policy, regularly making use of foreign markets as an outlet
for excess production, though the exportation is larger when the
domestic market is poor. To accomplish this it exports at prices

 Kartell-Rundschau, 1913, p. 760 fol,