BRITISH STEEL TRADE

Evening Star, Issue 19003, 27 July 1925, Page 4

BRITISH STEEL TRADE

SHRINKAGE IN PRODUCTION GERMANS CAPTURE MARKET A true picture of the slate of industry in the Sheffield area, must necessarily ba painted in sombre colors, but there are a low patches of bright color which lend to lessen the general gloom (writes Sir Percival Phillips, in the 'Daily Mail ’). They do more than that.

Conditions are too bad to admit of strong optimism in all brandies of the iron amt steel trade. Put some of them show less strain. Tuc fact is related by (ho maimtflcmrers with gratitude rather than elation. One crucible steel firm is paying a dividend/ on ils ordinary shares this year for the first lime since tho slump. Another firm which operates rolling mills has issued a balancesheet showing a substantial profit. True, it is mH weighted down by war charges, having kept its plant within original limits. This improvement in the crucible steel branch of indnslry is duo largely to increased homo and colonial demands. Some firms are also actually exporting to Germany—t not through competition in prices, but on tho strength of quality—and even In the United Stales, in spite of the Fordney tarilf, which aimed at (he total exclusion of British high-grade steel. The shrinkage in crucible steel. production is very great. The total capacity of the Sheffield plants is about the same as before tho war, but the output to-day is only 25 per cent, of capacity, ns compared with 67.25 per cent, in 1914. Only half of the men have been employed lately, including those on part time, whereas before the war the majority were working full time.

Wages have increased 115 per cent.; they represent nearly 43 per cent, of ilia average total melting cost per cost of converting iron into "blister steel lias advanced 245 per cent. As an instance of the heavy charges for material, pot stones, which are used in converting furnaces, cost £2B per set before the war and £l2O to-day. In some other classes of steel product* slight recovery is also perceptible, although tho manufacturers benefited thereby davo not prophesy as to the length of its duration. Two departments of one large Sheffield plant have been working nearly full lime for the past month on railway material, with tho prospect of another month’s employment; but unless fresh orders arc received they will have to close down again. German competition has bit this branch of tho steel indnslry heavily. Hecent reports received by local firms of the intensive campaign for foreign orders for Westphalian firms show only too clearly (bat, unless present conditions of production in Sheffield can bo improved, this market will slip still farther out of their grasp.

Motor car production has been an undisguised blessing for the makers of special alloy si col. Vickers, Lid., which is the largest employer of labor in Sheffield, with 7,000 men on its pay roll when working full time, is busy with orders of this character. y

Tho reimposition of the MTConna duties has shown an immediate reaction on employment. ' These si ighfc improvements should be given due acknowledgment ; but it cannot be denied that many other branches of industry are at a very tow ebb. Tho cutlery trade is still deplorably stagnant. I cannot find any manufacturers sufficiently optimistic. to forecast its early recovery. They see cheap German goods pouring into India and the British dominions and other markets where. Sheffield once ruled supreme.

A few weeks ago I saw the mills o,t ‘•olingen working full time on orders that once came hero. Solingen is oven making swords for British officers.

If the cutlery trade becomes prosperous an immediate shortage of* skilled labor will bo (he ncsnlt. This applies to other branches of industry as well, and it is viewed with tho greatest concern by tho cutlery makers.

Sheltered industries, which aro maintained on an inflated wages scale, particularly municipal undertakings; offering far higher pay than tho steel industry, have drawn away many men from the cutlery shops. Trade union restriction of apprenticeships is also responsible for the shortage. Tho unions havo laid down the hard-and-fast rule in the spring knife branch of the cutlery trade that only sons or relatives of journeymen can be accepted as apprentices or be trained in such branches as grinding table knives, saws, and scythes.