PACIFIC SHIPPING

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 83, 31 December 1937, Page 7

PACIFIC SHIPPING

■ W P. and 0. Line and Rise in Building Costs DISAPPOINTING POSITION LONDON, Dec. 11. The disappointing position of British shipping in the Bacific and the high costs of shipbuilding wert referred to by Lord Craigmyle, chairman of the P. and O, Steam Navigation Company, at the annual meeting this week. That so many years should have passed during which all the facts had been canvassed in public and most thoroughly investigated by the Imperial Shipping Committee, and that even now, in spite of the unanimous report of that impartial body and of the emphatic endorsement of its policy by public opinion throughout the Empire, the matter was still held up, was mOst disappointing to all who took a f riendly interest in the survival of Empire shipping in .f ace of uneconoaiic foreign competition. The Directors' Stand. Lord Craigmyle reminded stoclcholders that among the main troubles which the company had had, to faee in recent years were those which flowed from. the very high cost of vessels laid down shortly after the war. He made it clear thht the directors did not want any repetition of those troubles, and accordingly were not prepared to order new tonnage at present enhanced prices. Thanks to the extensive building ptogramme carried out sittce 1934 they wefe in a position to carry on for a number of years without major additions to their fleet, but nearly all the subsidiaries had extensive shipbuilding programmes (t which await a more moderate price for new construc- 1 tion." The importance of this declaration of policy to the shipbuilding and steel industries lies in the fact that the P. and O. group represents one-tenth of the entire British mercantile marine, and last year spent as much as £3,300,000 on new tonnage. Lord Craigmyle emphasised that he was not criticising the shipbuilders or the sub-contractors for the present high level of costs, which, in his opinion, was the re'sult of the temporary economic position of the country. Prospects of Subsidiaries. Referring to prospects the chairman said that, granted a period of reasonably good trade, their subsidiary companies would probably be able to make "some moderate increase" in their dividends at no distant date. Coronation trafiic, said Lord Craigi.iyle, had been disappointing. The unsettlement on the frontier had led to tlie cancellation of passages from India and reduced tlie passenger trafiic to not more than normal proportions. He reported that a moderate increase in passenger farfis had been agreed to by

the Lines, affeCting India, Australia and the Far East, so that shipowners would obtain a more adequate reeompense for the services they offered under conditions of largely increased cost • to themselves. That increase of fares, however, had not applied in the yfiar.'s accountg under reyiew. ,