BUILDING STEEL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23857, 11 July 1939, Page 10

BUILDING STEEL

SUPPLY FROM AUSTRALIA EFFECTS OF INTERRUPTION (Special to Daily Times; WELLINGTON, July 10. The position that has arisen through the refusal of certain Australian manufacturers to continue to supply building steel to New Zealand until the necessary credits are established in Sydney was referred to in an interview to-day by Mr L. J. Campbell, sales manager in New Zealand for the British Sheet Metal Company. Mr Campbell, who returned by the Awatea from a holiday visit to Australia, is also associated with John Lysaght, Ltd. Expressing the hope that some way out of the present difficulty would be found, Mr Campbell said he felt that the hold-up would be only temporary.

" Some way out will have to be found," he said. " The effects of the interruption of the supply of building steel to the Dominion would be too serious for the present situation to be allowed to continue. Practically every major building contract in New Zealand is dependent on the supply being maintained and since the practice of obtaining steel from Australia at short notice has become general I do not think the stocks held in the Dominion would help very much." Another factor mentioned by Mr Campbell was the receipt by Australian manufacturers of very heavy orders from England, where the rearmament programme was creating an extraordinary and heavy demand for steel. While he was in Australia he was informed that huge orders had been received from the United Kingdom. That being so, the New Zealand market was now of considerably less importance than it had been to manufacturers and they would therefore be all the more reluctant to continue business on terms which they might consider involved any degree of risk with regard to prompt payment. Mr Campbell said his trip to Australia was merely a holiday visit. He had no official dealings with manufacturers there and therefore could add nothing to what had already been published in New Zealand newspapers. Business seemed to be booming in Australia, he said. Some firms were expressing fears gs t- th° future, but there was no doubt the public generally was spending freely.