STEEL INDUSTRY

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 19, 23 July 1945, Page 4

STEEL INDUSTRY

BIG BRITISH SCHEME

BOOSTING OF PRODUCTION (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) Rec. 12.50 p.m. LONDON, July 22. A five-year plan for the British iron and steel industry, involving expenditure of £120,000,000 and increasing production by 20 per cent., is announced by Sir John Duncanson, commercial and technical director of the British Iron and Steel Federation.

The "Daily Express" says that the programme is so extensive that it will benefit all parts of industrial Britain. Nearly one-third of the nation's 98 blast furnaces will be rebuilt or replaced by the latest models. The national capacity for producing steel will be raised from 14,500,000 tons a year to nearly 18,000,000 tons. Much of it will necessarily be exported to fill some of the gap caused by the reduction of Germany's industry. Completion of the British plan within five years will depend firstly on adequate building labour and reasonable priority on materials, and secondly on the ability of the British heavy engineering industry to manufacture equipment. It is probable that much of the equipment needed for the most modern mills and furnaces will be imported from America. It is not proposed to ask any Government agencies to provide capital for the steel programme. Public investors will be asked to put up money to the leading firms, all of which will work under the reconstructed British Iron and Steel Federation. The programme will not lead to the direct employment of more steel workers. The whole idea is to produce steel more economically with labour-saving appliances. The "Daily Express" says that Germany's iron and steel production is being reduced from 27,000,000 tons to 10,000,000 tons a year. Two out of every three furnaces will be eliminated and most of the rolling mills will be dismantled. The huge Hermann Goering works will be reduced to a quarter of its former size.