RECORD FIGURES.

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 55, 2 September 1916, Page 10

RECORD FIGURES.

In an article (which is accompanied by a diagram) Fairplay deals with tho fluctuations in ships' values. _ Taking a- vessel with a carrying capacity of 7500 tons, the writer says that £60,630 was tho highest figure paid for such a steamer in 1900. In 1901 .freights began to fall, and the price in 1905 touched £37,000. In 1906 prices rose to £45,000, but fell again until in 1908 £36,000 was paid. A steady rise saw tho £58,000 mark reached in 1912, but from that time until the war broke out there was a decline. By November, 1914, an increase of £17,000 on the prewar rato had taken place, and in Juno, 1915, values reached the record of £82,500. This was considered at tho time to be tho1 limit, but the heavy losses of August, and the exigencies of war forced the value still higher, and £125,0C0 was paid in December last. Since then, the price has reached between £170,000 and £190,000, and the article points out the grebt risk that is being run by shipowners at theso inflated values. The present value of the -7500-ton steamer is practically five times what it was in tho slump in 1908, so that t-hoso who purchase steamers now will have to provide very heavily for depreciation before the vessel is written down to anything like a sound figure.