TOO MANY SHIPS.

Putaruru Press, Volume XI, Issue 510, 23 February 1933, Page 6

TOO MANY SHIPS.

MANY NOW ’LYING IDLE. The accounts of the big shipping: lines, foreign as well as British, show that very few were making any profit at all last year, while the position of the small owners was even worse. The present problem has resulted, in part from largely increased construction since ” the war, chiefly by foreign shipowners, whose activity has brought the total foreign tonnage to 17,000,000 tons more than it was in 1914.

British shipbuilders have done no more than to replace wartime lossesNow, however, construction has practically stopped, so that unemployment has increased in the shipyards of all countries and particularly in those of Great Britain, where the cessation of work 12 months ago on the new 75,000-ton Cunarder caused great outcry. In France the completion of the recently-launced Normandie was made possible only by assistance from the French Government.

In the latter part of last year work was proceeding on only 120,000 tons in British shipyards, although their output capacity is about 2,500,000 tons a year. It is not likely that many orders for new ships will be placed in the coming months, and probably a large number of older ships will go to the ship-breakers, as keeping them idle involves theirowners in heavy charges. Neither factor, however, can much relieve the position, the present surplus of tonnage being so large. The shipping industry can do no morethan take thin comfort from the hope of “ a general recovery.”