SHIPPING FREIGHTS

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11654, 19 October 1923, Page 4

SHIPPING FREIGHTS

ARE THEY TOO HIGH ? TRADE COMMISSIONER ON IVORS'* ING COSTS. SHIPPING COMPANIES' PROFITS. “What about shipping freight??” interjected a member of the **Y" Club, in the course of the addre>s by Mr X. Elmelie (British Trade Commissioner! at the luncheon at the Y.M.C.A. yesterday. 31 r Elinriie replied that freights were, if anything, down too low now, in proportion to working costs. I' pome trades, indeed, in which tber* was move competition than in other* the freights were lower than the prewar rates, in spite of the higher working costs. Tho questioner stated that articlei that cost £7 10s c.i.f. coat £ls f.o.b. Was that fair? Mr Elmslie: It depends upon the hulk of the goods. The questioner: Timber. Mr Elmslie : Timber, of course, is a very bulky cargo. Although freights are high to-day, the shipping corapaniee because of higher wages and higher , running costs generally, were carrying goods at a loss. Only a few lines were paying at anything like the pre-wai rate. A voice: Tlie £IOO shares of some of them—the P. and 0., for example—arc selling at £350. Mr Elmslie: Yes; but that was the case before the war in the case of the P. and 0. That company has such large reserves that if it laid up all it* ships, it could still pay a 10 per cent, dividend on its capital without doing any shipping at all.