SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21357, 10 June 1931, Page 5

SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY

• ——- FURTHER DECLINE A SERIOUS POSITION. (From Our Own Correspondent.) V , . LONDON, April it. Returns of shipbuilding for the , first quarter of the year, w.hich are issued by Lloyd’s Register, and take into account vessels of 100. tons gross and upwards, show that on March 31. there were under construction in Great Britain and I relaud 132 vessels, of 693,814 tons, gross. These figures represent a reduction on the returns for the December .quarter of 49 vessels and 215,088 tons and a , decline of 230 vessels and of as much as 921,179 tons on the shipping being built on March 31 of last year. The decrease is the largest ever recorded during any 12 months, with. the. exception of the year 1922, when there was an abnormal decline in the shipping under construction following the completion of the large shipbuilding programme due to the war. Nearly 100,000 tons of the shipping under construction in this country is intended for Norway, and includes much tank tonnage;'.about 126.000 tons are for other countries abroad or for sale. Thirty-seven of the vessels, of 299,513 tons, are oil tankers, so that other shipping under construction amounts to only 95 vessels, of 394.301 tons. A considerable proportion of this other shipping now being built represents vessels of the liner type. Abroad there were being built on March 31 last 1.306.052 tons, or only about 111.000 tons less than the amount which was in hand at the end of December In seven foreign countries there were more than 100.000 tons -under construction, namely. France 232,115 tons, the United States 231.003 tons, Italy 174,452 tons. Sweden 141.305 tons, Germany 135,951 tons Holland 120.630 tons, and Denmark 114,711 tons. MORE STEAM TONNAGE. During the first three quarters of last year the tonnage of motor ships under construction in Great, Britain and Ireland exceeded that of the steam tonnage, but at the end of December the steamers again exceeded motor ships, the excess being 23,740 tons, and at the end of March last the steam tonnage, at 395,352, was greater than the correseponding? motor tonnage by 100,000 tons. Abroad the motor tonnage, at 762,104, was more than 38 per cent, greater than the steam tonnage. Of the vessels being built throughout the world at the end of March, eight were steamers of between 8000 and 10,000 tons, and three were steamers of between 10,000 and 15,000 tons, while the motor ships of corresponding size were 43 and 15 respectively." Of the larger vessels—those of 15.000 tons and upwards—l2 were steamers of between 15,000 and 30,000 tons, and seven were steamers of 30,000 tons and upwards. There were only three motor ships in the first division and none in the second. A LONDON CONFERENCE. The Shipbuilding Employers’ Federation has, in accordance with the usual procedure followed in the industry, invited the shipyard trade unions to a conference in London to discuss the very serious position in which the shipbuilding and ship repairing, industry finds itself at the present time. / All the unions invited have agreed to attend, and it has been arranged that the conference will take place in London on Friday, April 24. The relations between the shipbuilders and their workmen are, happily, of a very harmonious character, and to a considerable extent the men are co-partners in industry, so that such a discussion is •calculated to have the best results possible in the circumstances. A leading shipbuilder states that the only serious inquiry for a ship that he had received during the past six months had been for one that had to be built and assembled in England, taken to pieces again, and shipped abroad in small units for final erection in the country in which it was required to sail.