COMPANY AFFAIRS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 101, 2 May 1938, Page 4

COMPANY AFFAIRS.

EXTENSION OF PLANT. AUSTRALIAN IRON AND STEEL. TORT KEMBLA WORKS. The directors of Australian Iron and Steel, Ltd., have decided upon further extensions of the plant at Port Kembla. The capacity will be increased considerably, and costs are expected to fall. At the annual meeting in Melbourne the chairman, Mr. Harold Darling, eaid that theve would be a further increase in ingot capacity. Tho ingot capacity of the Port Kembla works would be 500,000 tons a year. The new- blast furnaces, with a capacity of 1000 tons a day, should be blown in about the middle or' May. This would s'vo a much needed increase in pig iron supply, and would be of jrrent benefit not only to the Port Kembla works but also to the Broken Hill Proprietary works at Xewcastle. "Australia has been practically denuded of scrap," Mr. Darling said, "and most of this material available is of poor quality and expensive. The additional mipply of pi;; iron will lesson our requirements in this direction. The continuous billet and sheet bar mill should be in operation during the current year. "The Commonwealth Rolling Mills have purchased a large block of land at Port Kembla, and are now constructing a plant to manufacture motor body and other high-class «heets for the Australasian market. This is a new outlet for steel. The consequent demand for sheet bar, together with the demand from John Lysajjht, Ltd., for their black and galvanised sheet plant, now under construction at Port Kembla, will make a very useful load on the new mill, and at the name time will reduce cost of manufacturing for the billet supply to the 10-inch and 13-inch merchant mill. Thi« mill's capacity has been increased by the installation of a mechanical cooling bed, additional roll stands, and, of major importance, a larger heating furnace. The new additions and arrangements for the 10-inch and 13-inch mills should be completed by the end of May. "The effect of all these improvements is in the direction of lower cost* and jrreatex rolling capacity," Mr. Darling added. At an extraordinary meeting shareholders agreed to increase the nominal capital of £8.500,000 by the creation of 3,500,000 ordinary shares of £1 each. It is proposed to negotiate with the Broken Hill Proprietary Co., Ltd., which already owns all the ordinary capital, for the acquisition by it of ordinary shares to the value of £2,000,000, in liquidation of the major portion of advances made to Australian Iron and Steel, Ltd. i^ VACUUM OIL COMPANY. DEPUTY CHAIRMAN'S TOUR. Mr. J. C. Blair, deputy chairman of the Vacuum Oil Company Proprietary, Ltd., ■who lias been paying a ehort vieit to Xew Zealand, joined the Maripoea to-day

on a six months' business visit to America and- Great Britain. Mrs. Blair and their son, Mr. Sid Blair, will accompany him. Mr. Blair is well known in the Dominion both as a business man and eportsmau.

MACDUFFS AND SHILLINGS

At meetings held at Wellington on April 30 revolutions to liquidate were paired, the companies now being in the hands of liquidators. It is expected that tho shares of tho new company will be listed eome time this week.