STEELWORKS AT NEWCASTLE

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25735, 22 February 1949, Page 5

STEELWORKS AT NEWCASTLE

END OF COAL STRIKE PREVENTS CLOSING

“NARROW ESCAPE FROM DISASTER ” (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) SYDNEY. Feb. 21. Work was resumed at all the three Broken Hill Proprietary coal mines today after the miners had voted overwhelmingly in> favour of ending their strike. Coal supplies for the Broken Hill Proprietary steelworks at Newcastle will now be assured. As coal stocks are built up the men put off at the steelworks will be re-engaged and the position is likely to be normal by the end of this week. C. R. Mentiplay. special correspondent of the New Zealand Press Association, says that the strike which almost resulted in the complete closure of the big Newcastle steelworks, from which comes the bulk of Australia’s steel, has not blinded industrialists to their narrow escape from disaster. Australians are just beginning to realise what the drawing of the fires at Newcastle would have meant It is admitted by the union concerned that last week’s strike at the coal mines serving the steelworks was a frivolous one, in which no conceivable gain for the men was involved. Throughout Australia and New Zealand the demand for steel has never been greater, but the supply is falling further behind. Last week the Australian Prime Minister (Mr Chifley) suggested that though the productive capacity of Australia was 1,750,000 tons of steel annually, all that could be expected this year was 1.250,000 tons. Materials for making steel are in good supply, and the manpower shortage is not desperate. Coal is the only ingredient needed. Figures reveal that steel production is tied firmly to the availability of coal, and that this depends more than ever on the whims of the miners.

Maximum Output Never Reached The Newcastle steelworks has a capacity of 1.000,000 tons of steel a year, but it has never reached its maximum output. It would be reasonable to suppose that production is improving, but that is not the case. The nearest the plant has come to its capacity was in 1941, when it turned out 994,000 tons of ingot steel. Production fell off so sharply, however, that by 1945, when almost every other steel plant in the world which was not damaged by the war was running at full blast under pressure of war contracts, Newcastle’s outout was sagging down to 740,000 tons. It was, indeed, during the time of maximum war effort that steel production at Newcastle plunged down 265,000 tons from the peak year to its lowest point of 729.000 tons in 1946. Since then there has been little improvement, and last year the plant was still producing at only about three-quarters of its capacity. The amount of coal delivered yearly to the works fell from 1,684.231 tons in 1941 to 1.050,845 tons in 1946. Australia and New Zealand are being put to the expense of importing steel and iron goods from overseas. The Broken Hill Proprietary operates a plant at Newcastle so efficient that it can undersell any other country on the world’s markets, but is unable to obtain enough coal to export a single ingot ton of steel overseas.