BRITISH MOTOR INDUSTRY

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26126, 31 May 1950, Page 9

BRITISH MOTOR INDUSTRY

ALL EXPORT TARGETS EXCEEDED All -export targets were exceeded by the British motor industry last year, and more than 100,000 more vehicles were produced than in 1948. The value of the industry’s export total of all vehicles was £173,440,535, which compares with £146;000,000 in 1948, and is an all-time record. This represented shipments of 257,922 cars and 93,087 commercial vehicles. The grand total of exports is made up as follows:—cars, £72,798,969; commercial vehicles, £42,215,229; agricultural tractors, £19,307,311; accessories, £39,119,026. A particularly spectacular increase in the rate of truck and bus exports after devaluation, put the level of shipment above that shown by the latest comparable export figures for the United States. Australia Buys Most An analysis of the distribution of exports in 1949 shows that Australia led the overseas markets by value for cars -and commercial vehicles, with imports totalling £32,954,119. Values for other countries were:— Canada, £8,522,905; South Africa, £7,818,515; NeW Zealand, £4,537,924; Belgium, £4,401,920; Brazil, £3,956,344; India, £3,906,027; British West Africa, £3,494,329; British East Africa, £3,428,830; Irish Republic, £2,882,404; others, £39,110,881. Agricultural tractor production during the year sustained a setback as a result of currency considerations restricting sales in the major overseas markets. Altogether 90,411 tractors were manufactured, compared with 117,673 in 1948. Mr R. Gresham Cooke, director of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said recently that in the last three months of the yea? Britain had beco,?A.e, t* l6 . largest exporter of commercial vehicles in the world. He saw no reason • y , n °u tput . should not reach 450.000 cars in 1950, with a comparable increase in the output of commercial vehicles.