SHIPBUILDING.

Otago Witness, Issue 3862, 20 March 1928, Page 11

SHIPBUILDING.

GROUNDS FOR REJOICING.

MORE MOTOR VESSELS.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

, LONDON, January 17. Alter a severe depression lasting over two years and a-half, shipbuilding in Great cr *d °f December amounted to 1 579,713 tons, or more than the combined tonnage building in the rest of rhe world.

According to Lloyd’s Registry of Shipping over 200,0CX) tons now building in this country were for registration in the British Domnions, and nearly 200,000 tons were intended for foreign ship owners. Abroad there were 1,539,003 tons under construction, Germany leading with 472,295 tons, which was considerably more than double the tonnage building in that country at the end of December, 1926. Other countries which had more than 100,000 tons under —construction were— Italy, 133,216; Holland, 174,83/; France, 115,029; and Sweden, 100,700. Ship owners tend more and more to the internal combustion engine, althousrh to a much larger extent abroad than here. Of tho total under construction in Great Britain and Ireland, motor shops accounted for 652,894 tons (over 41 per cent, of the total building), while abroad the motor ship tonnage reached 956,994 (over 62 per cent, of the total). The world figures for motor ships—l,6o9,BB3 tons—exceeded by 115, 35p tons the total for steam tonnage. LIKE OLD TIMES. This,” says the Daily Express, in a leading article, “is like old times, and for three reasons it is as welcome as any news could be. One is that in building a ship an immense proportion of. the cost—well over three fourths —goes in wages. Another is that shipbuilding cannot prosper without benefiting at the same time a largo number of subsidiary industries, and these, for tho most part, the very ndustries that during the past five years have been most depressed. The third ground for rejoicing is that the British mercantile marine is clearly becoming again what it was before the war, not only the largest on the ocean, but the fastest and the most modern. “ About a fourth of the orders wc were fulfilling last year were on foreign account, and that again is a wholly reassuring sign. It means that the dominions and South America and the Continent, while retaining thoir old faith in the superiority of British workmanship, no longer hesitate because of costs or the fear of labour troubles to place ther orders in British yards. Shipbuilding during the war and as a consequence of the war had to yield much. It is now getting it back again with in- — terest.”