GERMAN MOTOR INDUSTRY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 31 July 1926, Page 15

GERMAN MOTOR INDUSTRY.

TOO MANY WORKS,

THEIR OUTPUTS LOW

Outwardly the business situation, in Germany is improving; for the thiid month in succession this year, Match shows an external trade balance in favour of Germany; the number of unemployed has decreased to some 1,580,000, while the number of bankruptcies, and cases of legal supervision registered weekly is considerably less than in the first quarter of the year. Nevertheless, despite these apparently favourable signs, little real improvement is noticeable in the position of German 'industries. The reduction in unemployment seems mostly due to seasonal movements in the agricultural, horticultural and building trades; while, in many cases, export traders appear to have been carried out at figures which would not represent a profit for the firms concerned.

One of the German industries which is particularly hard hit, at the present time, is the automobile industry. In pre-war years quite a considerable business was done in the export of German motor-cars; since the war not only has this export become almost negligible, but a considerable amount of foreign competition, especially from the U..5.A., has had to be contended with on the home market. Apart from local difficulties, such as lack of purchasing power by the German public, shortage of money on the part of the German automobile manufacturers, etc., it is contended in Germany that too, many motor-car works exist', having too low an output, with the consequence that they can neither supply cars at a competitive figure nor provide the technical advantages offered by American cars.

About thirty firms exist in Germany making private motor-cars; these firms are said to have a total output of some 000 cars a day; of these 200 represent the manufacture of one firm, while about fifteen firms do not make more than five cars a day apiece. Similarly, it is stated that. too many carriage builders exist in Germany, many of the works being small and primitively equipped. In all, roughly seventy firms are listed as builders of motorcar bodies, while about eight car manufacturers make their own bodies. In view of the fact that workers in American carriage building firms arc paid three to four times the wages current in Germany, no improvement can be hoped for from reducing local rates of pay. It is generally considered that a number of smaller motor-car manufacturers and carriage builders must disappear from the scene before conditions in these industries can radically improve; furthermore, a number of tho remaining firms must contont themselves with drawing certain supplies from factories specialising therein, and thus give up the ambitious idea of manufacturing every part in their own establishments.