DUMPING OF CUTLERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20870, 12 May 1931, Page 5

DUMPING OF CUTLERY.

RUSSIAN RAZOR BLADES. SEVEN FOR A PENNY. Sheffield cutlery manufacturers are at present experiencing great difficulty owing to the competition of cheap foreign cutlery in this country, says a correspondent of the Times trade supplement. The figures of cutlery imports for February showed a total of £121,712, which is about double the total of February last year, and it is obvious that largo quantities of German cutlery have been imported.

The correspondent says:—"The safetyrazor blade section of the cutlery industry, which has made rapid and satisfactory strides in recent years, is now having to face the competition of Russian blades dumped into this country in huge quantities and offered at the extremely low wholesale price of Is 9d a gross. It is suggested that there is some possibility of Sheffield manufacturers applying to the Board of Trade for an order to prohibit the dumping of these goods on the home market./ " Exports of cutlery have declined considerably, and the Australian market, in particular, seems to become more unsatisfactory each month. New Zealand trade has also decreased, almost by half, "but Canada continues to tpke substantial quantities of cutlery. In view of the keen foreign competition now being met at home, it is worthy of special note that the official figures show that exports of safety razors and blades are remarkably well maintained." The Times, in commenting on its correspondent's statements, says:—" It is unnecessary to point out the inevitable consequences of this unfair competition if it bo. allowed to continue, and it should bo unnecessary to remind all whom it may concern that revenue tariffs of 15 per cent, ad valorem will have no more effect in preventing the destruction of this branch of the cutlery trade than shooting peas at an ironclad." An Auckland importing firm states that the lowest price at which British razor blades are sold in England is 6s 6c a gross. The wholesale price of these blades in New Zealand is 9s 6d a grosti.