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During the year the Otago Iron Rolling Mills Co., Ltd., transferred operations to "the Government-owned plant and achieved a substantial increase in output. It is intended to institute double shifts as soon as Australia is in a position to supply the necessary increased quantity of billets. Black steel sheet, while not yet freely available from sterling sources, improved sufficiently in supply to enable the control over end-use to be removed, supplementary of enamelling quality sheet being obtained from the United States of America. Supplies of galvanized sheet and galvanized pipe from the United Kingdom and Australia were again limited. Some relief was obtained from North America, but currency problems prevented us from taking full advantage of these sources of supply and end-use •control of both commodities continued to operate. Adequate supplies of fencing-wire and wire-netting have been available but a shortage of nail-wire, due mainly to the shipping hold-up in the United Kingdom, created .a temporary local shortage of nails. Large shipments came to hand early in the New Year, however, and the industry is working extended hours to meet the position. The extended strike on the Australian coalfields last winter affected our supplies of pig iron and foundry coke, but temporary relief was secured from other sources and Australian deliveries resumed in time to prevent any serious dislocation of local industry. Non-ferrous Metals Adequate supplies of non-ferrous metals in all forms except copper and aluminium ingot and wire-drawing quality copper rods, have been freely available from the United Kingdom during the past year. Aluminium ingot and copper rods —the latter for the use of the local wire-drawing industry—have been available from Canada. Australia has been able to meet our requirements of lead and zinc. Ingot tin was freed from international control during the year, and the London Metal Exchange was reopened for dealings in this commodity. Machinery and Machine Tools : General During the past year the supply position from the United Kingdom and from other soft-currency countries improved materially for a number of machinery items. Sterling devaluation assisted in removing the excessive price difference which frequently existed between similar machinery from soft- and hard-currency areas. Diesel engines and small petrol-engines for industrial purposes have shown rapid improvement in range and price from the United Kingdom, and as petrol-engines in particular are used widely in conjunction with locally-manufactured equipment of various types, substantial savings in dollar expenditure have been affected. Certain specialized machinery is still secured from the United States or other hardcurrency countries because of considerations of price, delivery, or availability, including some carton-making machinery, some printing or book-binding machinery, some woodworking machinery, and machine tools for engine reconditioning. Timing-chains and driving-chains used in automotive and agricultural machinery respectively are now more freely available from the United Kingdom. In recent years the bulk of our requirements have been procured from hard-currency sources. It would appear that the greater part of post-war expansion involving the importation of machinery has been completed, and consistent with overseas funds available industry has been enabled to equip itself with modern machinery best suited to its various requirements.

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