LONDON’S ANNUAL TRADE

Hokitika Guardian, 11 October 1930, Page 7

LONDON’S ANNUAL TRADE

The enormous importance of the market served by the Port of London is j once again emphasised by the preliminary figures obtained from the Board of Trade in respect of the year 1929. During that year the total value of the overseas trade of the United Kingdom was £2,059,816,450 and of this the value of imports and exports that flowed through the Port of London was no Jess than £705,237,524, or over 34 per cent, of the whole. The total increase in the overseas trade of the United Kingdom in 192 D over 1928 was £20,355,704, of which London’s share was £12,500,000, or 61 per cent, of the national increase in trade. If importations are taken separately, which after all is the best guage of the power of the London Market, it will be found that London’s tot al of £480,155,455 is greater by, £14,107,773 than in 1928 and is considerably greater than the combined • im port traffic handled by the next five largest ports in, the United Kingdom, viz., Liverpool, Hull, Manchester, Southampton and Glasgow, the grand total for these ports being £445,835, 015. The import trade of London was in fact more than double that of Liverpool, six times that of Hull, seven times that of Manchester, eleven times that of Southampton and sixteen times that of Glasgow, QUICK DISCHARGE, Two recent instances serve to illustrate the efficiency of the Port. When' the 9.8, *‘Murillo,” chartered by the Union Qastle Line arrived with 103,766 packages of oranges and other citrus fruits from Cape Town, the first load was discharged and delivered at the Covent Garden Market within 90 minutes after leaving the ship’s refrigerated chambers. In order to expedite discharging, various special mechanical appliances were brought into operation and the greatest care was exercised to ensure that no damage was done to the fruit. Over 200 lorries were loaded in a single day. and many of the vehicles made four journeys a day between the docks and the markets. In addition large quantities were loaded into railway trucks for various provincial centres and they arrived at their destinations a' few hours later. The vessel was completely discharged in 28 working hours, which is equivalent to a rate of over 3,700 packages an hour. TRANSHIPMENTS. Transhipment work, is of course, pari and parcel of the every day routine of the Port of. London, but for expedition an achievement •. recently can seldom have been excelled. The s.s. “Suecia” from Sweden docked at the Millwall Dock at 4.30 one afternoon with certain cargo destined for Japan, By 5.10 p.m, the cases hud been loaded and cleared through the Customs and at 6,45 p.m, they were on board the s,s, “Fushima Maru” at the Royal Albert Dock. The s.s. “Fushima Maru” was on her way opt of the Port at 3 a.m. the following morning. Thus the time that elapsed between the arrival of this cargo in the Port of London and its departure for its final destination was less than 11 hours,

“LONDON—THE MOST EFFICIENT PORT IN THE WORLD,

Presiding at the nnnnal meeting of the London General Shipowners’ Society, Mr L, C. Harris dwelt at sortie length on the recent development of the Port of London and its trade. It is progressing in all directions, he said, and declared London to be -the most efficient port in ,the world. No other port had gone in for such an up-to-date improvement programme. Port facilities had, during the last few years, been increased enormously, while the Pore Plies had been very substantially (bleed during the last five years, two separate reductions having been made in tiie past twelve months, The value of cargo dealt with in the Port has increased to a greater degree than tiie value dealt with in the whole of the United Kingdom. . Mr Harris recalled that the London Shipowners’ Society was the oldest body of shipowners in existence and that from it had sprung practically all tiie big shipowners’ societies of to-day. Lloyd’s Register of Shipping owed its existence to them, while the Shipping Federation and the Chamber of Shipping were also off-shoots,