Business Gossip

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 184, 25 October 1927, Page 12

Business Gossip

Butter and Cheese. —Under date October 22, the London office of the Amalgamated Dairies, Ltd., cabled as follows: Butter: Prices unchanged (last advices, firsts 1745, finest 178 s) and nominal. Very little buiness passing. The forward position is still sound. No. c.i.f. or f.o.b. business is passing. Danish 181 s f.o.b. Retail unchanged. Cheese: New Zealand, 102 s to 105 s; Canadian, 103 s to 106 s; spot, 96s to 98s, c.i.f. Market is quiet. Retail unchanged. United States' Petroleum. —Final returns on the production of crude petroleum in the United States in 1926 show the output as 770,874,000 barrels, the largest total for any year on record, an increase of about 1 per cent, over the preceding year, according to Mr. G. R. Hopkins, of the Bureau of Mines, as reported in “Bradstreet’s.” The United States output constituted 70.3 per cent, of the world’s total production of 1,096,000,000 barrels, as against 71.5 per cent, in 1925. The total value at the wells of crude petroleum produced in this country was 1,447,760,000 dollars, an increase of 13 per cent, over 1925, the average price per barrel being 1.88 dollars, as against 1.68 dollars in the preceding year. Striking features of the year's producing history were the development of fields in Texas, California, and Oklahoma. The total number of wells drilled in 1926 was 29,319, of which 65 per cent, were oil wells, 8 per cent, were gas wells, and 27 per cent, were dry holes. There I were 515,600 producing wells in the United States on December 31, 1926, an increase of 12,500 over the like date of the preceding year. The average output per well per day was 7.4 barrels, as against 6.5 barrels in 1925. Electrolytic Zinc Trading. —Lower operating costs are largely responsible for the directors of Electrolytic Zinc Com- ! pan y being able to report substantial profits in their annual report, this, despite lower metal prices. Net profit for £ he was £390,077, against * ,£420.699 for 1920-26, and £375,380 for 1924-25. The : appropriation to reserve for amortisation : and depreciation is £145,000, the same , amount as for 1925-26, and £40,000 is j provided for new plant and development against £20.000 in the previous year' i Dividend distributions for 1926-27 at £312,000, show no change. Since the ; close of the year's accounts further payi ments have been made to preference and ordinary shares amounting to £156,000. . The company s ore reserves are estimated ■ at a minimum of 1,400,000 tons of average grade Preparations are being made for the mining of larger tonnages, and a beginning will be made next year with the erection of a mill designed to treat 100,000 tons of ore a year. The report states that the programme of extensive reearch and experimental work carried out over the past few years has demonstrated beyond doubt that the complex ores of the West Coast of Tasmania can be suc■essfully and commercially treated, but, as has been the experience with the Electrolytic Zinc plant, metallurgical improvements and refinements may be anticipated as work progresses.