STEEL FAMINE 0OVER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27197, 28 September 1949, Page 5

STEEL FAMINE OOVER

Britain Steps Up Her Exports CHALLENGE FROM GERMANY NZPA-—Copyright Rec. 9 p.m. LONDON, Sept. 27. The great post-war steel famine is over and Britain is stepping up her exports of finished steel, says the Daily Express. New steelworks, part of the industry’s £248,000,000 post-war expansion plan, have pushed the output up to where nearly all home demands can be met. With output running at a record of 15,250,000 tons a year, the industry has sold 1,200,000 tons so far this year overseas against 850,000 tons in the same period last year. This is good news for the dominions and colonies, which have been getting only token supplies in the past. The Sheffield correspondent of the Daily Telegraph 'says German firms are undercutting BritMi steel manufacturers and depriving them of big orders for high-grade engineers’ tools and other specialised products. German undercutting has also robbed the United States and Canada of some orders.. One of Sheffield’s largest steel firms reported to-day that German prices, which were 30 to 50 per cent, below the British, had resulted in the firm losing large orders for roll work in Italy, Denmark, and Belgium. The United Press Geneva correspondent says that according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Europe’s steel industry is receiving fewer orders and some steel furnaces are even being forced to close although there is a general steel shortage. It is understood that the furnaces mentioned are in Belgium and Luxembourg. In a statement to-day, the executive secretary of the commission, Mr Gunnar Myrdal, said that the steel industry. and steel consumers were suffering from the effects of the inconvertibility of currencies and bilateral trade structures.