BRITISH FARM MACHINERY

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26524, 12 September 1951, Page 8

BRITISH FARM MACHINERY

EXPORTS MAY BE INCREASED

ALLOCATION OF SCARCE STEEL SUPPLIES

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 11. The demands of rearmament are giving the British Government an extremeiy difficult task in determining the allocation of steel to British industry. Agricultural engineers expect, however, that they will be assured of sufficient supplies to maintain ana expand the export of agricultural machines. This summary of his industry’s immediate prospects was given by Mr E. N. Griffith, chairman of Rotary Hoes, Ltd., and president of the Agricultural Engineers’ Association of Great Britain, in an interview to-night. Mr Griffith said that England had today a basic output of about 15,000,000 tons of steel a year. That steel could all be used in normal peace-time industry, but out of this 15,000,000 tons had also to come now the whole of the steel required for rearmament. For the last six months manufacturers of engineering products had been finding it more difficult to purchase their supplies, and whereas in pre-war days a factory geared to mass production aimed to work on a monthly cycle of supplies of raw materials ana component parts, orders to-day had to be placed as long as two years ahead for many of the scarcer types of steel and for such items as ball bearings and chains. Manufacturers had also to take this material in as soon as it was available and the upshot was that at least three times more working capital was required to finance a unit of output than before. This put a heavy strain on the finances of all companies. The shortage of coal was the basic cause of most of the difficulties of industry in Britain to-day, Mr Griffith said. The over-centralisation of the nationalised coal industry had taken away all the initiative of management at the pit and of the miner who supposed and was told that nationalisation would bring him the millennium. The miner now had no real incentive to produce the quantity of coal mined in Britain in pre-war days. There were to-day steel plants and rolling mills in Britain closing down through lack of their raw materials.

Suggested Remedies Vlt is undoubted that coal is the basis of our trouble,” said Mr Griffith, “and in my opinion the miners will not produce the coal till they are given more beefsteaks and a cut in their income tax. Many other sections of the industrial community are in the same position.”

Mr Griffith said that in view of the adverse balance of payments the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr Hugh Gaitskell) made a national appeal for increased exports. In July, therefore, the Agricultural Engineers’ Association sent a committee of the principal firms in the industry to conduct discussions with Government departments. The industry was able to sav that it could exceed bv £24,000,000 in 1952 thp present record output, if it was assured of adequate steel ana other materials. Other sections of the engineering industry would doubtless make representations to the same end, but the case for the agricultural engineering industry was particularly strong, as the agricultural machine to-day was a necessary weapon in the cold war against Communism. There was no doubt that the Government departments in Britain were appreciative of the industry’s importance, and he was very hopeful not only that the industry would receive as much steel in 1952 as in the last vear but that the quantity available to it would be substantially increased. The home market, in accordance with policy already laid down, would be restricted in favour of the export mar-