BROKEN HILL

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27737, 15 August 1955, Page 16

BROKEN HILL

STATISTICS FOR YEAR’S OPERATION Further details of the operations of the Broken Hill Proprietary Company and its subsidiaries are given in the annual reports and statements of account of the organisation which have now come to hand. Last month it was announced in a Press Association message that the company had made a net profit for the year to May 31 of £3,215,538, compared with £2,546,321 in the preceding period. In the statements now to hand the uet profit for the group is shown at £4,341,114 (£3,887,029). Other statistics for the company and the group respectively, with the previous year’s figures for comparison in parenthesis, are:— Ingot production: 971,171 tons, (1,026,245), 2,138.363 (2,067,613); gross working profit, £5,393,031 (£4.797,498), "£13,524,075 £12,077,621); investment income. etc., £2,148,363 (£1,350,188), £702,919 (£541,286); depreciation, £1,975,856 (£1,576,365), £5,038,858 (£4,367,635); provision for increased cost of plant replacement, £500,000 1 £350,000) £838,000 (£852,000); provision for income tax, £1,850,000 (£1,675,000). £4,009,022 (£3,512,243); net profit, £3,215,538 (£2,546,321), £4,341,114 (£3,887,029); percentage net profit to shareholders’ funds, 7.7 (6.7), 8.3 (8.2); expenditure on freeholds, leaseholds, plant and machinery. £5,945,692 (£2,717,416), £9,874,799 (£10,154,120); dividends paid, £2,372,062 (£2,080,756), £2,526,334 (£2,224,138): number of shareholders at May 31, 40,337 ( 36,922), 44,000 ( 40.603); total salaries and wages paid, £13,931,075 (£12,591,432), £29,053,342 (£26,340,068); average number of employees, 13,719 (13,389). 29,164 ( 28,394). In his report for the directors, the chairman, Mr Colin Y. Syme, says that of the funds accumulated in the appropriation account and used in the company's business, £950,000 had been transferred to general reserves, which now stand at £7,600,000. Fixed assets of the group now total £51,642,019, an increase in the period under review, of £4,836,261. The managing director, Mr Norman Jones, reports that notwithstanding improved production figures—pig iron at 1,857,233 tons and steel ingots at 2,138,363 tons—“the sustained heavy demand for our products still necessitates very close scrutiny of orders to ensure that output is allocated in the best interests of consumers generally.” In the year the company’s fleet and vessels under charter carried 2,352,993 tons, and sea transport altogether carried 5,200,000 tons for the iron and steel industry, he said. In the organisation’s shipyards two colliers of 4750 tons each were completed and the building of the first 10,000-ton bulk carrier for the Australian Shipbuilding Board and a 10,000-ton ore carrier is proceeding. Output from collieries totalled 2,377,045 tons, compared with 2,292,462 tons in the preceding year, Mr Jones said that a notable event at the Commonwealth Steel Company, Ltd., was the Installation of a 5000-ton capacity forging press capable of undertaking forging work not previously possible in Australia. The press was obtained by the Commonwealth Government as reparations from Germany. It will be operated on lease from the Commonwealth Govern-

STOCK SALES ST. ANDREWS "The Press” Special Service TIMARU, August 11. Quality, with an odd exception, was poor in the penning of approximately 80 head of fat cattle at St. Andrews stock sale today, but, with the help of outside competition, Values rose sharply by £5 a head. / Sheep and store cattle were not offered in quotable numbers. Values were:— Fat Cattle.—Fat steers, gqod, £4l 2s 6d to £44 2s 6d: medium, £36 2s 6d to £4O; light. £2B 2s 6d to £32 17s 6d. Fat heifers, good, £32 2s 6d to £37 12s 6d; light to medium, £26 2s 6d to £29 17s 6d. Fat cows, good, £26 2s 6d to £3O 2s 6d; light to medium, £l5 2s 6d to £2l 7s 6d.