SHIPS FROM GERMANY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18994, 16 April 1925, Page 10

SHIPS FROM GERMANY.

FIVE LARGE MOTOR VESSELS.

BLOW TO BRITISH TRADE. LARGE DIFFERENCE IN PRICES. [FROM OUR OWN* CORRESPONDENT.] ■LONDON. Mftr. 10. A subsidiary company of Messrs. Furness, Withy and Co. have placed a contract for five 10,000-ton motor cargo vessels with a German firm, after finding it impossible to have the vessels built in Great Britain on an economical basis.

At tho last meeting of Messrs. Furness, Withy and Co. tho chairman, Sir Frederick Lewis, stated that the problem of shipbuilding had received very anxious and prolonged consideration. "We have three alternatives—(a) to build vessels in this country at uneconomical prices —that is to say, at prices upon which wo will not he able to obtain a return equal to, or even approaching, that which we aro receiving on Government securities; (b) to build abroad at lower prices; or (c) to defer building until wo can do so on a basis that is commercially sound.

"Wages in German shipyards aro substantially lower than wages in British shipyards. The average for the skilled worker thero is the equivalent of about £2 a week, while here it approximates to £3, and the shipyard workers in Britain are at this moment demanding a further increase of 10s a week. In the German yards a nine-hour day obtains, thoy have the three-shift system, and the overtiino is entirely without restrictions." Successful German Firm. The German firm to get the contract is the Deutsche Werft, of Hamburg. For the last 12 or 18 months the shipping company is known to have been ready to place orders for new vessels if it could have done so on terms which it considered at all practicable. It is also known, originally, to have invited tenders for the present ships from leading builders in this country, but tho prices named were, it is said, such that it could not, with freight rates at their present, level, have even seen its way to earn depreciation. It is alio said that the company would not have ordered tho ships at all if they could only have been obtained at the prices named by the British firms. After having been disappointed with the terms offered by British builders, Messrs. Furness, Withy and Co. aro understood, almost out of curiosity alone, to have invited tenders from German firms for ships identical in every particular. Tho prices at which the Deutsche Werft offered to build the vessels caused, it is believed, surprise. The difference between the British and Gorman offers was almost staggering. A difference of £60,000 on each ship has been mentioned, but there is good reason to believe that the difference in tho <yise of some of tho ships whs greatly in excess of that figure. OSor to British Builders.

It. is stated that when the German offer was received the. specifications were shown to British builders, and they were invited to accept the contract at a price for each ship £IO,OOO above that which the German firm was prepared to accept. That is to say, the shipping company was ready to pay .£50,000 moro in order that the "five ships might be built in this country. It is stated that none of the British firms was able to accept the contract on such terms, or at any price approaching the German offer. The company needing the. ships maintains services which do not touch tho British Isles, and it is faced in these trades with the competition of vessels of various flags. Some of the countries, at any rate, to which these ships belong, arc able to build vessels at below the costs in this country, and the Bntisn company maintains that, in order to hold its own iu these routes, it must have vessels of modern type.