BRITISH STEEL TRADE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 164, 24 April 1935, Page 6

BRITISH STEEL TRADE

ON ITS FEET AGAIN. UNITED STATES LESS CHEERFUL. (Special to the " Guardian.") AUCKLAND, April 22. Improvements which have taken place in the British, steel industry were commented on by Mr R. W. Perkins, managing director of Commercial Steels (Australia) Limited, who passed through Auckland by the Mairposa on his way back to Sydney after a business trip to Great Britain and the United States.

"When 1 visited England four years ago, I was most disappointed," Mr Perkins said. "I saw world-famous steel plants under the cloud of depression drifting almost into a state of disrepair. On my latest visit I found a complete transformation. The English Steel Corporation Limited, which was formed to take over the steel interests of three of the largest British firms, lias spent close on £2,000,000 in reorganising the whole of its plants and bringing them up-to-date. In spite of the uncertainty of the world trade outlook, the plants are alive with work, and it was as good as a tonic to pain 'a first-hand impression of the results of British confidence. "The American situation is most involved, and the problems of the steel industry in the United States are more serious' than those in Great Britain. One sees the spectacle of a highly-in-dustrialised nation with much of its plant lying idle, and with millions of unemployed. I spent some weeks in the plants of leading American steel manufacturers, and it seems that their emergence from depressed conditions will not take place in the immediate future."