PROPOSED STEEL WORKS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22318, 16 January 1936, Page 7

PROPOSED STEEL WORKS

SUGGESTION CRITICISED LIMITATIONS OF MARKET EXPENSIVE PLANT REQUIRED Doubt as to the possibility of establishing steel works in New Zealand, as suggested by the Hon. H. T. Armstrong, Minister of Labour and Employment, on a profitable basis, is expressed in a letter sent by the executive of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce to the Associated Chambers of Commerce. The letter states that there is a very strong feeling among commercial men that such a scheme could not be established as an economic industry owing to the wide diversity of sizes and shapes of articles that would be necessary in comparison with the quantities required, if such works were to cater for tho whole of the steel requirements of New Zealand. It was considered that the Associated Chambers of Commerce should give the matter close consideration. A report secured some time ago by tho chamber on the question of whether steel works could be economically established and conducted in New Zealand also has been forwarded. This report states that the average imports of sheet and galvanised iron and of wire for the three years ended 1930 were 44,659 tons, and of other iron and steel, 72,54-5 tons. For the three years ended 1933, the figures were 26,590 tons and 26,442 tons respectively. The articles imported were in hundreds of shapes and sizes, and the plant required to produce them would be very large and expensive and v;ould be lying idle most of the year. For instance, a modern bar mill in England could roll 3500 tons a week, so that the item, bar, bolts and rods, in New Zealand's consumption ; for 1933, could be produced in three i weeks.

Regarding the deposits of ore at Onekaka, the report stated that the total Government assistance to the Onekaka Company had been £2 2s per ton of pig iron produced. The cost of production at Broken Hill, according to reports, was under £2 per ton, and at Pretoria, South Africa, about £2, so that financial assistance from the Government had exceeded the total cost of production in Australia and South Africa. The deposits at both Onekaka and Parapara were very patchy.