OLD METAL TRADE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 24 June 1937, Page 14

OLD METAL TRADE

EXPORTS PROHIBITED LARGE QUANTITY SENT TO JAPAN It was announced last week thft except with the special consent of the Minister of Customs, no further shipments of cast iron or scrap metal may leave New Zealand, With the gazetting of the prohibition order, the meteoric rise and descent of the most recent of New Zealand’s exporting industries has ended (states the "N.Z. Herald”). ' This trade reached its height within a year. From the boneyards of derelict ships and the dumps of rusted engines, dismantled motor cars and obsolete guns, a heterogeneous assortment of scrap metal was collected, piled ton after ton into ships—themselves often destined for the wreckers in some foreign port—-and taken to Japan, where it was fashioned into new articles of utility. VALUE OF TRADE In four years the trade is estimated to have contributed £160,000 to the wealth of the Dominion, the quantity of metal despatched annually rising to a maximum of 243,961 cwt, in 1934. Subsequently, although a decline set in, the keen competition for the shorter supplies caused prices to soar and approximately the same returns have since been received for smaller amounts.

Last year’s figures are not yet available, but the returns for the previous three years are as follows: —1933, 651,785 cwt., value, £54,471; 1934, 243,961, £34,842; 1935, 171,590, £35,199. Commenting upon the prohibition, a leading Auckland ironmaster said that on account of developments within the export trade the new regulation would have little effect upon the industry. He pointed out that no cast iron in any quantity had been exported to Japan, as prices ruling in New Zealand were fully equivalent to overseas rates.

COLLAPSE OF MARKET Moreover, within the last few days the price for scrap iron and steel in Japan had collapsed, and, restricting imports under a system of licensing, the Government had assumed -control. In the first place, this was due to the rationing of the limited foreign credits, while, secondly, an endeavour was being made to check the rise in price caused by the free competition of Japan’s buyers in overseas markets. Shipments to Great Britain were, on account of freight charges and insurance, handling and shipping costs, uneconomic, and ‘ very little work in the treating of scrap metal was undertaken in New Zealand.