TRADE RECOVERY

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 23, 27 January 1934, Page 14

TRADE RECOVERY

SHIPBUILDING REVIVES

SOME OFFICIAL COMMENT

(British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, January 25,

In addition toi the substantial increase in" the retail sales, as recorded by the Board of Trade'this week, further evidence of. the steady recovery in British trade and industry is provided by the continued rise in railway receipts.

For the first three weeks of the year these totalled £77,090,000 or £5,250,000 more than in the corresponding period of last year.. ,

Evidence of the definite revival of in-, clustry or trade in the United Kingdom is furnished by the latest report of the Department of Overseas Trade. The British; Trade Commissioner in New Zealand hasbeen advised through the medium of this report, dated December 1, that "the trade revival of the past few months continues to be reflected in the returns." A steady increase in exports, coupled with materially heavier imports of raw materials, is again /apparent." • < ■ ■ Imports of raw materials ■ are higher, and this is highly significant, for, it implies, that manufacturers are more confident of the future. ' . The trade figures for the ten months /of 1933, compared with those for last year, ■ showed that the adverse balance has been reduced-by over £31,000,000. ■ Of the 20 categories in the classification of exports only five show decreases. The increases were in the following trades:— • i Iron and steel;. n,6n-ferrous metalsl; wool and. worsted 'yarns; cotton yarns; other textiles';•; vehicles; machinery; - chemicals, 'drugs, dyes; leather manufactures; cutlery; I hardware, .tools; paper, cardboard; apparel; .rubber; coke,and fuel. MORE EMPLOYMENT. ; A further substantial increase in the, number of employed' persons was i-cvealecl' in the October figures.- These showed at. work 640,000 more ,than on January 25 and 537,000..m0re than in October, 1932. The number of persons registered as un-' employed was 448,252 less than on the corresponding, date last year. On October 23 there were approximately 9,925,000 insured persons- aged 16 to 64 in employ? ment in the United Kingdom. .; •; There ■ was ■■ a. further improvement -in employment in coal mining, general, engineering, motor vehicle and metal goods manufacture, ( and in , the cotton, ' wool, hosiery, pottery, and boot and shoe industries. Conditions ; also began to improve in shipbuilding > and ship repairing", textile' bleaching, dyeing and finishing, and in the tailoring industry. : CONTRACT SECURED. Big coal .order's ' were reported for Sweden, '.Portugal; Italy, and Danzig. Other contracts were for the Union of South Africa, 200 teleprinter outfits; steel •work and sluice gates worth £12a,000 and oils worth £2150 contracted for by the Egyptian Government; military -aircraft contracted for the Portuguese Government; a 10,000 k.w. high pressure, turboalteruator ,for ; the municipality of Johannesburg; complete equipment for two new cottdn; mills for the Kwangtung Province of' China; also electrical machinery for the mill; and a' contract for a new Ayoollen mill for Canton. " -, • , . . ' Dealing with shipbuilding the report states that the upward trend,in the .industry, which has shown itself dunng.tne current year, is "perhaps,the most gratif fving of ' all recent signs of recovery, for no United Kingdom key indus-try-has'suffered more severely from the world depression." So serious was the position at one period that the shipbuilding yards' 'were working less than onetenth, of capacity, while 63 per cent, of their workers were unemployed. • . "For the first time in Vk years, the tonnage under construction throughout the.worlft shows an increase, being now 758^52 tons or 24,257 tons greater than.at the end <of June. Of this world total 40.1 per cent.;is being built in the United Kingdom. -The present United .Kingdom tonnage -under construction is more than three timer that of her nearest rival. Especially encouraging is the fact that the amount, of laid-up tonnage in this country is steadily decreasing. Since the beginning, of the year 27.2 per cent, of the. laidup, vessels have again been taken into, use." . ' ' . .' ' , '■■:'■]