SCRAP METAL PURCHASE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21346, 22 November 1932, Page 10

SCRAP METAL PURCHASE

CONSIGNMENT TO JAPAN

4000 TOMS FROM AUCKLAND

ONLY GOOD QUALITY CHOSEN

Only good quality metal, such as old rails, iron tyres and axles, horseshoes and portions of tramway track will be included in the shipment of scrap iron which is to be taken to Japan by tho steamer Shinnoh Mnru next month. Tho vessel, which will also load at Lyttclton and Wellington, is duo at Auckland on Decern her 24 to lift 4000 tons of metal and is expected to sail for Japan about January 3.

Formerly the East provided a good market for old metal, many New Zealand vessels being sold to Chinese and Japaneso buyers to bo broken up, but more recently prices have been so low that 110 sales could bo made, although a number of New Zealand buyers have been endeavouring to clear stocks of scrap metal. Local holders of old iron take the shipment as an indication that tho market has improved, and it is passible that other shipments may be made on behalf of Auckland scrap merchants. The last shipments of old iron of any quantity to bo made from Auckland were in 1930, when about 1000 tons were sent to tho United States on the steamer Kairanga and about bGO tons by tho Golden Cross. Since these shipments were made the American market has also been depressed. The greater part of the present shipment is old railway iron, the remainder consisting of mild steel, shipyard and boiler scrap and small metal loaded in old 40-gallon drums. Only metal that will be suitable for resmelting and rerolling has been chosen. Owing to tho cheapness of labour it is possible to remould old iron and mild steel in Japan at a cost lower than that for new steel, but this is not practicable in New Zealand, where the cost would be higher than that of English steel landed here. At one time there was a certain amount of iron resmelted in Dunedin, but tho trade ceased some years ago. For the same reason old iron is not utilised to any great extent in England.