THE SHIPYARDS

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 144, 15 December 1927, Page 7

THE SHIPYARDS

INCREASE IN WORK

VOGUE OP MOTOR VESSEL

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

LONDON, 19th ■ October. -Lnc position -in the shipyards is improving. The volume of work in hand is greater than it has been for uve years.

This improvement is disclosed by Lloyd's Register Shipbuilding Returns for the quarter ended 30th September. They show that the tonnage under construction jn Great Britain ana Ireland —1,5d6,416 tons—was 146,028 tons more than at the end of June, and 761,019 tons more than the tonnage building twelve months ago. The work suspended at the end of September amounted only to 8488 tons, as compared with 107,498 tons at the corresponding date last year. These totals, although the highest since September, 1922, are still 354,000 tons below the average tonnage building during the twelve mouths immediately preceding tho war, 1,890,000 tons. A considerable decrease has, however, taken place in the tonnage commenced during the quarter, namely, 370,073 tons, as compared with 437,112 tons during the second quarter of this year. Ihe tonnage launched during the quarter—3ss,s42 tons—shows the large increase of 86,997 tons as compared with the figures for the previous three months.

The total merchant tonnago building in other countries—l,s37,64l tons— is about 87,000 tons more than at the end of June, 1927. The tonnage under construction abroad only exceeds by 1200 tons the tonnage building in Great Britain and Ireland, as compared with over 400,000 tons twelve months ago. The total world tonnage under construction,' 3,074,057 tons, represents the large increase of about 234,000 tons as compared with the previous quarter, but is still 372,501 tons below the highest pre-war record reached on 30th Juno, 1913—3,446,558 tons. , ' There are under construction in the world 37 vessels of between 10^000 and 20,000 tons each and 15 of 20,000 tons and upwards. Seventeen out of the 37, and seven of the larger vessels, are building in Great Britain and Ireland.

Vessels now being built in the world which are to be fitted with internal .combustion engines amount to 1,589,510 tons, while the tonnage of steam vessels under construction is 1,468----842 tons. The motor tonnage thus exceeds by 120,668 tons the steam tonnage, showing the continued development which is taking place in the adoption of this system' of propulsion. In Great Britain and Ireland the motor tonnage under construction amounts to 653,342 tons, equal to 74.1 per cent, of the steam tonnago under construction. In Danzig, Denmark, France, Holland, Italy, and Sweden the motor tonnage building greatly exceeds the steam tonnage, the combined totals 'for tfiese countries being 581,544 tons of motor ships and 137,964 tons of steamers.