COMMERCIAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 3, 5 January 1922, Page 2

COMMERCIAL.

LONDON TALLOW SALES. ilteceiveti 2 p.m. i LONDON". January 4. At tlie tallow sales "Hun casks were offered, and .S2l sold at a decline of about a. shilling, compared with the s alte 0 f [> e cemher. Mutton, flue 44 , Medium, lis •<;. _ IA . and y.'/d. Cable.) S/TEELMAKING COSTS AND I'fiOSPECTS. To emphasise the necessity for all-round reluct ions of shipbuilding and sieeimaking costs wherehy improvement m trade would result. Sir Alexander il. Kennedy, managing director of the Fairfield Company, when speaking at Glasgow, mentioned that the total labour cost represented in a vessel, including, in addition to shipyard work, the wages paid iv the manufacture of the steel and ail other materials, and the wages, cost of transport. etc., amounted to over l*> per cent cf the complete cost and emphasised the ueed for payment by results and uot by time, wherever possible. Sir P.c.bert Hadfleld. in a letter to the ••Financial Times." declared that the present sta--nntiou in trade Is not dne to the overstocking of Ihe market with steel. The opposite is. in fact, the case. The world is suffering from a steel famine, and the prospects are exceedingly hopeful if opportunities arc seized, hut hard work and • ■heap fuel are necessities. The seven years of war diverted 100.000.000 tons of steel from ordinary use to the making of armaments, anil it is obvious that the anantitv of steel produced since the war enrkel lias not even been sufficient to meet the demands for renewals and rppairs of rallwavs and other things into which steel construction enters largely, and the estimated present needs of the world run into hmdrods of millions of tons. Where is this to come from? Australian industry is being strangled through excessive hich cost of production, principally caused by the determined efforts of the workers themselves to resist all attempts to reduce the rate of pay. and to-day we find innumerable instances not only in Australia, hut also in other countries, where owners are beaten by competition, and nn v it olmos" impossible to secure any trade. Their only course Las been to close down their works and await readjustment of wazes whereby they could again enter into competition wita foreign markets. Foreign competition will not be a big factor once the inevitable demand sets in. \ritlt every furnace work-ins;- Belgium could not produce as much steel In V 2 months as Pritaln could make in sis weeks, and with Bolginm internal trade back to normal she will have prartioallv none left for export. Germany has now lost her great source ot raw materials in the ironfields of Lorraire. and the competition she has lately put up is partly caused by her use of scrap from armaments and monitions. -When that «ource of supnlv is exhausted her competition will considerably diminish. eSTieciady when exchange begins to right Itself. France, altbopgb she has acquired Lorraine has not the labour to make full mse o- it. nor the transport necessary for dealing with a great increase of output. America has some important advantages over Britain, but against this Britain has other advantages, as all Tier requirements in materials are found close to each other. In America the iron ore is IWO miles from the coal, and the coal is 400 miles from shipboard, hence Britain has cheaper cost of transport, besides which the quality oT i coal and iron in Britain is much better.

AGRICULTURAL WAGES IX EXGLAXO. Recent reductions in the rates of pay of agricultural wages and -promise of a fuither decline are tending to make the English farmer -more content to face the future. The dramatic fills in thfl produce, cattle and s-heen markets, have meant; losses of thousands of pounds to the farming community, and it is only possible to face the position by reducing productive cosLs. Agricultural wages until recently were treble pre-war rates, but reductions so far represent H per cent.