FOREIGN COMPETITION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27038, 24 March 1949, Page 7

FOREIGN COMPETITION

THREAT TO BRITISH COAL EXPORT MARKETS MANY PROBLEMS AHEAD NZPA Special Correspondent Rec. 8 p.m. LONDON, Mar. 23. The British coal trade expects to face serious problems this year, mainly because of the increasing foreign competition which is threatening Britain’s export markets. The revival of production in the Ruhr is reducing the demand for British coal in Europe, and the Poles, who are consistently undercutting British prices, are making increasing inroads into Britain’s South American markets. As the result of higher wages and shorter hours, British coal costs have risen steeply, and the National Coal Board is already seeking for ways and means of reducing production costs in order to meet a possible price war in overseas markets. In doing this, however, the board’s hands are consider ably tied by increased costs implicit in nationalisation, while there is also a threat that the National Mineworkers’ Union will demand further increases in wages and an extension of concessions. Addressing an audience of miners at the National Coal Board’s Spring School at St. Andrew’s, Sir Arthur Street, deputy chairman of the board, warned the men that the board could not afford further concessions, bur must, on the contrary, make considerable economies.