ALARM IN BRITAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 80, 1 October 1938, Page 28

ALARM IN BRITAIN

OVERSEA MARKETS

GERMANY'S RAPID THRUST

British motor manufacturers are alarmed at the increasing competition of German cars in the export markets. Reports from India, Burma, Ceylon, Australia, and South Africa show that the German exports to those countries so far this year greatly exceeded those for the same period of 1937.

It is reported that in Australia, where the Germans have had success with the importation particularly of one of the small cars, It is now planned to enter the market with another. <

Of the 4875 cars imported into India in the first four months of this year, 705 were German, compared with 266 during the same period last year. Imported British cars dropped from 2691 to .1976 during that time. The price there of the small German car is said to be about £50 less than the equivalent British product, although foreign cars pay a 37 _ per cent, duty, compared with the preferential rate of 30 per cent, on British makes.

Australia took 283 unassembled chassis (almost all imports are in this form from Germany) in the first five months of this year, compared with 27 last year, despite a tariff preference of about £25 per small car in favour of the similar British product.

South Africa took 1088 British cars in the first quarter of this year, 696 less than in the 1937 quarter, while German imports rose slightly from 608 to 613. The small German car there is £60 or more cheaper than the British comparative product. The total German car exports for the first quarter this year were 20,930, compared with Britain's 25,210. During the same period last year Germany's exports were only 12,884. By the end of the fifth month of this year Germany had increased her total to 29,457 cars, against Britain's 33,816.