MERCANTILE MARINE.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 95, 22 April 1924, Page 8

MERCANTILE MARINE.

— CHAMBER OF SHIPPING REVIEW. HEAVY RUNNING LOSSES. WORST DEPRESSION ON RECORD. Everyone knows that the serious depression in world trade has hit the British shipping industry badly, but few people know how badly, and when a shipowner is found declaring that he is running his vessels at a loss, as Lord Tnchcape declared a couple of months ago, there are many who refuse to accept that statement as true. Yet it is a fact that the majority of the shipping companies in Britain to-day are losing money on their operations, and the Chamber of Shipping has just issued a repprt that reiterates that fact, and seeks to prove it by showing the movement pf freight rates, the vplume of tonnage laid up, and running expenses, etc. According to this report, the year 19-3 witnessed the worst depression the shipping industry has experienced. Taking 100 as the index figure for freights for the whole year of 1020, the freight was 46.31 In January, 1921; 32.97 m January, 1922; 29.42 in January, 1923; 25.03 in August last, and 28.06 in December. "That course of freights," the report points out, "illustrates the irresistible working of the law Pf supply and demand. The world is doing much less trade now than before the war, but there exists much more tonnage, which is always ready to put to sea when freights show signs of rising, thus preventing any elective recovery of the market. Although passenger ships have fared somewhat better than general cargo carriers, international oceanborne trade, as a. whole, has been transported not only without profit to the shipowner, but at a heavy loss." The report then proceeds to review the condition of British shipping. In June, 1914, there were 18,877,000 tons pf shipping registered under the British flag, and in spite of the heavy- losses sustained during the -war the volume of shipping is to-day greater than at was then by 200,000, while in the dominions the increase is 812,000 tons. On the expansion pf merchant shipping pf all nations which has occurred since the middle pf 1914, amounting in the aggregate to nearly 15,500,000 tons, shipowners in the British Empire have been responsible for only just over 1,000,000 tons; the United States, Japan, and France having built or secured most of the remainder. In these circumstances the percentage of world sea-going tonage owned in the United Kingdom has decreased from just under 44J per cent to just under 33 per cent. But these figures are misleading without qualification as indicative of the position of British shipping, because probably half of the 15,500,000 tons increase in world tonnage is obsolete or otherwise uneconomical. Idle Foreign Tonnage. , Of the total tonnage afloat at least 6,000,000 tons owned by foreigners 5s idle, as against 750,000 tons owned by Britishers. This, top, notwithstanding that British shipping is not artificially assisted by subsidies or protected by flag discrimination. Thus it follows that the British producer and consumer gets the lowest rate of freight possible at the moment in the international freight market; otherwise so much foreign tonnage would not be idle. Dealing with the physical condition of British shipping, the report states that statistics are available which prove that the proportion of obsolescent tonnage.. and therefore inefficient tonnage—is no greater to-day than it was before the war. Of the 19,000,000. tons of British bottoms only about 3,670,000 tons are twenty or more years old; a further 2,600,000 tons fall within the age limit of 15-20 years; while 9,500,000 have been built during the past ten years. Approximately half of the vessels of the British mercantile marine are therefore less than ten years old, a proportion which does not compare unfavpurably with the figures for the whple wprld, in spite pf the unparalleled war censtructipn programme undertaken by the United States and the activity ofXiermany, which, having surrendered under the peace treaty all her seagoing shipping, has built upwards pf 1,500,000 tons in put own yards, in addition to purchasers which she has made abroad, with the result that she now possesses nearly 3,000,000 tons—most of which is of modern construction, and highly efficient. Motorships Development. To show hpw British owners are endeavpuring to keep abreast of the times and retain their lend in the world shipping, the report refers to the development of the motor ship. Of the motor ships now afloat, aggregating 1,321,131 tons, it points out, 374,873 tons were recorded in June last as being under the British flag; while at the end of 1923 55 vessels in which internal combustion engines are to be installed were under construction in the shipbuilding yards of the United Kingdom, having a tonnage of 323,641 tons. That is a larger amount of shipping of this type than is being built in all'the other shipyards of the wprld, the total cpnstructipn abroad on December 31 last being 96 vessels of 310,386 tons. The report next proceeds tp discuss the questipn pf operating costs. It shows the high prices for fuel, stores, repairs; wages, port charges, and general running expenses, and then mentions that while these charges are common to the shipping pf all flags they hamper and restrict trade, but are hardly a cause for any other anxiety. It.is" the j charges berne by British pwners that -are nnt bprne by foreign pwners, howj ever, that are responsible for perturba- | tion. One of the heaviest pf such ! charges, wages, shows a tremendpus disparity when compared with what is j paid elsewhere. Anpther advantage posj sessed by foreign owners over the British patters is the depreciated currency and disparity in internal mpney values which gnvern a number of payments. Yet, nptwithstanding all this, I the volume of British tonnage, laid up is (infinitely less than that of any other i country.