GERMAN SHIPPING

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 199, 11 May 1918, Page 8

GERMAN SHIPPING

A THREAT OF THE FUTURE

THE ENEMY AT WORK

While the TJ-boais are continuing to take their toll of British and Allied shipping, the Germans are hard at work preparing for the shippi'ig war that will follow the declaration of peace. They are extending shipyards, ■ stablishing new shipyards, inuvasing the rapital of shipping companies, and preparing in other ways for the recreation and enlarging of the German mercantile marine. Their activities are the subject of an interesting article in Uio Journal of the British Board of Trade. '

The Germans admit that 'he destruction of the mercantile marine they possessed in July, 1914, has beeu largely accomplished. The situa-tnii "rom their point of view was slated a few months ago by Ilerr Huklorman, a director of the Hamburg-Amerika Lino:

If we regard the German ships lying in ne.itral ports as curs, even then oiw-half of the Gormali mercantile marine has ber.-i lost whilo if rhese ships" are looked Jpon i,s lost, Iho half becomes two-thirds, a loss which German shipowners must make • good. This restoration must take place under abnormal icndvMans, as compared with those obtaining in the past. Then can be no question 1 that the expenses'of the new construction will be many times higher than the expenses of pre-war days. It is here' that- the Act for the reconstruction of the mercantile marine steps in, and its effect, stated briefly, will be that the shipping firms will have to expend on reconstructiin, roughly, the same amount of new capital-as they expended some years ago on ' the ships lost during the war. , . The Act referred to gives the German Government power. 10 make wants to German shipowners for the replacement or ships lose during the war, and to cover costs incurred through the prolonged internment of German ships in neutral ports. But the companies themselves have to bear part of the cost, and for that reason they are hastening to increase their capital.

Apart from the increases of capital, a considemblo number, of new firms have been established and more aro apparently to be founded. Among others aro the Hamburger Werft A.G., started by tho A.E.G., and the Uaniburg-Amerika Linie, the Sekuritas Sprengstoftwerke, of Hamburg, and two new yards at Lubeck. In Tonning, the llnnsa shipbuilding and engineering firm, founded in .Hamburg <rith a capital of 1.75 million marks in 1917, is contemplating the establishment of a shipbuilding yard on tho site of tho former Ejder yard. Again, tlia municipality of Hamburg has sold to- tho Secnritns Explosives Works Company of Hamburg (which was formed in April, 1917, with a foundation capital of 1.6 million marks, .out of'the Socuritos Explosives Selling Company), a large plot of land in the area of the new Harburg seaport for tho erection of a' great shipbuilding >ard. Itsconstruction was to begin in 'March, 1918, as 6oon as the existing leases had been terminated. The piece of land covers 260,000 square yards, and on three sidos of it there are stretches of water with a depth of 33 feet, so that even large ships can be launched there. Cargo steamers of a considerable tonnage, for which Uhere is a great demand, aro to be built in series. Tho works will bo able to put, in (heir own. engines in the ships they build, for the Socuiritas Company is now erecting in Westphalia its own engineering works, so that the yard will be independent in-this respect of other undertakings, Besides the new yard in Harburg it is now also reported that Francis Koch, formerly a director of the Henry Koch Shipyard Company in Lubeck, and W. Kocn, engineer in the same undertaking, intend, in collaboration with a financial group, to erect a new shipbuilding works at the mouth of the 'Crave. Negotiations for purchase of a suitable site have not yet been concluded. Another shipbuilding works is conleinplnted at Flensberg, with a share capital of 10 million marks. The following quotations from the German Press indicate the preparatory activities of the industries:—'

The, directors of the Hamburg (189G) Shipping Co., have called rn extraordinary general meeting to vote upon the raising of the capital from 2-J to 5 million marks by issue of new shares. Half of the'new shares are to be offered to tho B[A shareholders at 110, every two old shares giving the right to obtain one new share.—"Vossische Zeilung," The New Steamer (Neue. Dampfer) Company of Stettin is proposing to 1 raise, its capital from 3.16 to 4.5 million of marks.—"Vossische Zeitung." The Hamburg-Bremen Afrika line is seeking to increase its capital from 4} to 10 millions. The articles if association are also to be revised, iinong other things.' German citizenship is to be. made indispensable for membership of tho board of management ;,nd of the board of directors.—"Vossische Zeitung.".

It is noteworthy that it is precisely the smaller yards, whose activity before the war in building ships,was insignificant, which now display efforts to extend I heir plant for such building and lo provide the necessary capital. Besides the yards in the great transoceanic seaports, those also in the medium-size ports like Stettin, Liibeck, etc., aspire to secure a share in the anticipated prosperity of shipbuilding— ''Berliinr Tageblatt." A company, entitled- the Ship Installation Company, has been farmed in Bremen with a capital of 1,400,000 marks, by the Wire and' Cable Company of Hanover, the Lorenz Company of Berlin, the Lloyd Dynamo Works of Bremen, the Commercial'and Discount Hank of Berlin, and the Deutsche National Bank of Bremen. The object af the undertaking is the carrying out of electric and other installations, especially in ships, and the production and eale of suitable machines and apparatus of every kind.—"Berliner Tageblatt:" • , , t , u , „ The proposed increase ot capital by U million marks on the pnrt of the German Munitions Works Company of Hamburg, and the contemplated change in the rales so as to permit of the extension of the undertaking to include an engineering shop and factories for the manufacture of ships' stores, is, we hear, hound up with the proposed founding by the company of a shipyard at Lehr m Ka«t Frisia. Preparations for the shipbuilding yard are already in progress"Vnssiche Zeitung." "In addition to the law for the reconstruction of (he mercantile marine," says the Board of Trade Journal, "four banks are in process of formation, to give additional financial aid to the shipping companies. The Hamburg Senate has given favourable consideration to a scheme lo establish a Ship Mortgage Dank in Hamburg, and a Bill will shortly bo laid before the Legislature empowering the new hank lo issuo morlgago bills.

"A similar project is being u'scussed at Bremen, where until recently tho shipping companies appear to have been opposed to it. Finally, in Berlin a bank is being established which will concentrate its activities in the main on. inland and coastal shipping. This new Ship Mortgage Company is to bo financially assisted by the Dresdner Bank, tho National Bank fur Doutschland and tho Eerlined Hnndolsbcscllschaft,

"A'fourth Germany Ship Mortgage Bank is about to 'bo established in Duisburg, with a branch at Nuremberg. The now enterprise is to havo a capital of 11,000,000 marks, and it is slated that (his sum has nlready been over-subscrib-ed by the shipping interests concerned. The 'futuro shareholders are distributed among five of the Federal States—Baden. Bavaria, Hesse, Alsace-Lorraine, and Prussia,

"For a long time opinion in Germany wns divided as to tho value of the Ship Mortgage Bank. Those who advocated tho formation of these banks pointed to the immense iiifluenco exercised by Dutch capital in Germany, and to tho neod for its removal; especially as olio of its results was to bring about an over-production of tonnage. Gentian interests, tliov further pointed "lit, were injured by -.he fact that tho Dutch institutions made the grant tf credits conditional on the construction of new ships in Dutch yards connected with them. Tho opponent*'of the movement declared thai

as it would he impossible 'o exclude tfejf Dutch banks, t'lum the German markfi} altogether, the German Mortgage- BanU would only increase the alleged on® production of tonnage, and a crisis would ensue; and that it' German vessels were built in the Dutch yards on. ihe Ehine, that was because these offered a number of attractive Advantages. The movement would also encourage the small owner of tramp steamers as against 'he fixed services of Uic great companies. The new credit facilities might thus be undesirable for shipping, awl if Uic new banks failed they might adversely affect large circles of investors. Needless to say, the advocates of the proposal are to be foumd among the shipbuilders, the smaller shipping compamX tud the pri. vale shippers; its opponent?,, tor the most part, among the great joinwwck. shipping companies."