SCOTTISH STEEL TRADE

Otago Witness, Issue 3524, 27 September 1921, Page 14

SCOTTISH STEEL TRADE

KEEN FRENCH COMPETITION. LONDON, September 21. The Central News Agency tells a dismal story of the condition of the Scottish steel makers, who under Government pressure during the war made uneconomic extensions of their plants, with the result that they are now producing at a heavy loss. The selling price of steel plates is £4 per ton under cost. The manufacturers would close down altogether but for the danger of losing their trade connections. Ninety per cent, of the Scottish steel workers are unemployed, the works running at only 20 per cent, of their capacity compared with Germany’s 80 per cent. The position is aggravated by French firms purchasing from the German-owned steel works in Lorraine and Luxemburg at ludicrously low values, and exporting almost the entire output, amounting to 2,000,000 tons annually, at prices with which Great Britain is unable to compete. The position is made worse also by the fact that Australia and Japan, which formerly were Scotland’s customers, have laid down their own works.

Experts prophesy that these conditiona will continue for five Years