IRON AND STEEL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 172, 23 July 1945, Page 5

IRON AND STEEL

NEW FIVE-YEAR PLAN Scheme To Increase British Production N.Z. Press Association —Copyright Rec. Noon. LONDON, July 22. A five-year plan for the British iron and steel industry, involving the expenditure of £120,000,000 and increasing production 20 per cent, was announced by Sir John Duncanson, commercial and technical director of the British Iron and Steel Federation. The Daily Express says the pro gramme is so extensive that it will benefit all parts of industrial Britain. Nearly one-third of the nation's 98 blast furnaces will be rebuilt or replaced by the latest models. The national capacity for producing steel will be raised from 14,500. 000 to nearly 18,000,000 tons a year, much of which will necessarily be exported to fill some gap caused by the reduction of Germany's industry Completion of the British plan within five years - will depend on adequate building labour and rea sonable priority on materials, and abilitv of the British heavy engineering indtfstrv to manufacture equipment. It is probable that much of the equipment needed for most of the modern mills' furnaces will be imported from America. It is not proposed to ask any Government agencies to provide capital for the steel programme. Public investors will be asked to put up the money to leading firms, all of which will work under a reconstructed British Iron and Steel Federation. • The programme will not lead to direct employment of more steelworkers. The whole idea is to produce steel more economically with labour-saving appliances. The Daily Express says Germany s iron and fteel production is being reduced from 27,000,000 to 10,000,000 tons a year. Two out of every three furnaces will be eliminated. Most of the rolling mills will be dismantled. The huge Hermann Goering works will be quartered.