THE STEEL INDUSTRY

Otago Witness, Issue 3556, 9 May 1922, Page 22

THE STEEL INDUSTRY

BROKEN HILL WORKS. SYDNEY, Auril 27. A special court under the Eight Hours Amendment Act refused to grant an application for an extension of the 44 hours’ week to the employees of the Broken Hill Proprietary’s steel works at Newcastle. Air Justice Beeby stated that it was not expedient at present to make any industrial change which would increase the cost of production. Foreign competition had again become a serious menace, which could only be met by the further lowering of prices. The immediate problem Was for the company to achieve a producing cost which would enable it to further reduce the selling prices. As the labour cost was the main element, there was a necessity for the company’s employees to come to a. new basis of wage payments hearing relation to the local average selling price of iron and steel. HUGE AMERICAN COMBINE. NEW YORK, April 28. The Now York World states that 14 of the largest, independent steel companies in the United States, including the Midvale and the Republic Iron and Steel companies, will shortly form a combination of an aggregate value of 800,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 dollars. The corporation will be second only to the United States Steel Corporation. The movement, which is due to a desire to reduce the overhead costs and to gain greater efficiency, was begun previous to the war, but the large profits arising from the war held the matter in abeyance until the present lean years.