STEELWORKS ACTIVITY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22878, 5 November 1937, Page 14

STEELWORKS ACTIVITY

INDUSTRY IN AUSTRALIA OUTPUT BOOKED UNTIL MARCH [BY TELEGRAPH —OWN CORRESPONDENT] (! REYMOUTH. Thursday

The use of stool in tlie building trade in Australia was reflected in the groat activity in the steelworks at Broken Hill and Port Kembla, said Mr. J. S. Robertson, a prominent West Coast sawiniller, who has just returned from the Commonwealth. At Broken Hill he had been informed that the steelworks could not take further orders for steel until next March, even though they were working a seven-day week with an output of four tons of steel every five minutes. Three thousand tons of coal a day were used, and the coal was supplied by four mines operated by the company, whose payroll reached the huge total of £70.000 a week. At Port Kembla the activity in the steel trade was so great that the company was spending .£1.000,000 in building a canal, alterations to the works and in building homes. The need for homes was so imperative that hundreds of steel workers, with their wives and families, were at present living in tents and tin sheds. The incongruous part was that many had expensive motorcars parked outside these makeshift, hovels.