BUILDING STEEL

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 45, 21 January 1938, Page 2

BUILDING STEEL

SHORTAGE LIKELY. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Jan. 20. The opinion that there would be no marked rise in building construction costs in New Zealand following the recent 'increase in wholesale mill steel prices in Australia of from 5s to 20s a ton was expressed by Mr Andrew Fletcher, director of the Fletch Construction Company, Ltd., Wellington, in an interview to-day. When asked to comment on the situation, Mr Fletcher emphasised that the proble mso far as New Zealand was concerned, was not the cost of Australian steel, but the difficulty of getting adequate supplies. The next rolling of rounds in Australia was scheduled to start in March and would not bo completed at the end of June. Rolling after that would commence about October. “It seems there is going to be quite a shortage of steel and New Zealand will probably have to go elsewhere, probably to Canada, to keep going,” Mr Fletcher said. The English price was still at lehst 50 per cent .higher than the Australian price and the landing cost of English steel was about £7 per ton higher than the landing cost of Australian steel. Mr Fletcher said the industry in Australia was so busy that it was not able to overtake the business that was offering. He did not think there was the slightest doubt that Australia was giving New Zealand a very fair proportion of the steel from the Broken Hill Proprietary Company’s works in comparison with the population of the Dominion. The rise in steel prices was the first the Broken Hill Proprietary Company had made since the depression days.