BRITISH INDUSTRY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 63, 12 September 1938, Page 12

BRITISH INDUSTRY

DECLINE IN STEEL

TEXTILE TRADES MORE HOPEFUL

(By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) LONDON, September 10. The latest reports from the United States are favourable, but the industrial trend in Great Britain is much: more difficult to assess. Unemployment returns are .encouraging and the textile slump seems to have touched bottom. A more hopeful attitude is noticeable in the cotton and rayon manufacturing centres; but the metal industries and miscellaneous '."'■-frades catering for the home market ■;: appear to have deteriorated. . A further decline in steel activity is beginning to have serious results in the northern depressed areas. ... Evidence and industrial statistics : appear to »oint to the fact that"the. ■■'■ decline in the export trades has been halted, but the Home industries lead- ' ership in steel has lost ground. The fall in British prices has not! yet gone far enough to meet the re- "•:. duced circumstances of the primary •• producing countries forming Great Britain's best markets. •: In the commodities markets tne prices of metals are steady, even firm. The price of rubber rose sharply last . Tuesday, though it has since fallen back with the deterioration of the world situation. Lead is the firmest of the metals. Special attention was given .by the Westminster Bank, London, in its July review of British industrial conditions to the export trade. It is shown that 48.33 per cent, of British exports in 1937 were to British countries and 51.67 per cent, to foreign. Among the former were New Zealand, 3.88 per cent.; ; South Africa, 7.94 per cent.; . Canada. 5 28 per cent.;: among the foreign coun- ! tries were the United States, 6.02 per . cent.; Germany, 4.15 per cent.; France, 4 iO per cent.; Argentina, 3.85 per cent. The proportion of British exports to foreign countries is now smaller to ■' countries outside Europe than it was The order of importance of overseas trade in 1937 was as follows:—Union of South Africa, British India^ Australia, United; States, Canada, Germany, Irish Free State, France, New Zealand, Argentina, Denmark,, and Nether- : lands. These countries accounted for • 60.18 per cent. of. the total exports. The fall in world trade as a whole ;has been due mainly to growths of national sentiment whiclr has hit Great "Britain severely. That fall is more ': 'marked in terms of value than in quantity. In concluding its review of the - British export trade position; the Westminster Bank states: ■ "Assuming that no major deterioration occurs in the , international political situation to destroy that confidence which is the hasisvof all trade, there is no occasion to be despondent about the future of our export trade. But at the same time it must be realised that we are passing through a period of readjustment. The trade is still to be had, but it must be sought with unremitting effort,, with adaptability to supply what the; market requires, and with the assistance which m these days.pt ■ universal political interference^ with trade arid -industry only the Government can- Tender." > , ■