U S. INDUSTRIES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20137, 5 January 1940, Page 2

U S. INDUSTRIES

SALES TO ALLIES PURCHASES LIMITED RESERVES PILING UP SEARCH FOR WAR PROFITS NEW YORK, Dec. 20. , While the Allies are conserving their dollar exchange chest by rigid buying control, and developing Em*pire resources, a huge reservoir ol manufactures is accumulating in the United States. American production is now higher than the level of the autumn of 1929 and, should hostilities begin on a major scale in the spring, the Allies will be able immediately to supplement their own output by millions ot tons of American equipment. As Uncle Sam is in the position ot a shopkeeper who is short of customers and largely overstocked with most lines, the Allies will be able to talk prices with him. Manufacturers here are making no secret of their disappointment with Allied purchasing pools which restrained buying before the war was a month old

Industrialists were producing to capacity, anticipating another 1914 boom, but the Allies turned to the Dominions and Sterling .Bloc countries from which credit was obtainable and to which goods could be sold, these providing enough metals, oil, crops and basic industrial materials for present needs. Limited Buying Large scale purchases in the United States have been limited to a few strategic industries. Others ar.e piling up surpluses. October exports were 323,108,000 dollars, only 18 per cent above the mediocre level of October of last year. The disappointment-of business men is turning to alarm, and experts are warning that the United States must not expect war profits except from aircraft and automobiles. The aircraft industry has increased sensationally. Factories began the year with 153,000,000 dollars worth of orders, and now have 550,000,000 dollars worth. Aviation Spirit Fortunately, plane factory floor space expanded 17 per cent, arid engine space 20 per cent in the first seven months of 1939, bringing the industry close to its goal of mass-producing standardised models. Extensive additional expansion is planned. The same is true of the aviation gasoline industry. Over 5,000,000 dollars’ worth of new refindry tion is under way in Texas alone. There has been 2,000,000 dollars’ worth of refinery equipment ordered from abroad, mostly by Britain. Other buying has been minor and scattered. One company has received orders worth 8,000,000 dollars for specialised torpedoes and other ordnance, and another 1,348,000 dollars’ worth of gun-carriages. An Allied order for 14,000 trucks is only a fraction of American production. Britain has just contracted for 15,000,000 dollars’ worth of scrap, but this and previous large orders have merely annoyed the American steel industry, which prefers tt> keep the scrap and export the finished steel. However, aside from a 200,000-ton order in September, steel exports have not risen enough to prevent sizeable surpluses. v Agriculture Suffers

Copper provides a good example of how the Allies are proving self-suffi-cient. The British are buying 420,000,0001 b. froin Canada and 580,000,0001 b. from Rhodesia annually. France has contracted for seven months’ supply from Latin America and Africa. In the meahtime the United States copper industry is facing over-production.

The situation is worse in agriculture. as the Allies’ resources are practically unlimited. The Bureau of Agricultural Economics, reporting to Washington, charged the AngloFrench Pbol with implementing “monopolistic control over normal trade,” and said that Anglo-French refusal to license imports of American apples decimated practically the entire foreign market.