TRADE SURVEY

Southland Times, Issue 23123, 13 February 1937, Page 14

TRADE SURVEY

PRODUCTION AND EXPORT Motor-cars and commercial vehicles in use in the world in 1935 totalled 37,000,000. Of these, 1,505,000 private cars were in Britain, and 22,575,000 in the United States. In New Zealand there were over 190,900 motor vehicles in use, a ratio of 123 vehicles per 1000 of the population of one to every eight persons. Canada and South Africa showed one motor vehicle to every nine persons. , With the exception of the United States (one for every five), these ratios are the highest in the world. These facts are given in the Imperial Economic Committee’s “Survey of the Trade in Motor Vehicles.” No such comprehensive review of the trade has previously been issued. It gives details of the principal export markets, the production of vehicles in America, Europe, and Japan,- and compares the progress and competition of the export countries. Out of every 20 motor vehicles entering world trade, nine go to countries in the British Commonwealth, which now absorb one-third of the motor exports from the United States, threequarters of those from the United Kingdom, and nine-tenths of those from Canada. The two, outstanding markets for the motor exporter are Australia and South Africa. Together they now absorb nearly a quarter of the total world export. India and New Zealand also stand high in the list of leading markets, particularly for British motors.

•It is not surprising that the United States, with 26,000,000 motor vehicles on the road (70 per cent, of the world total), accounts for eight out of every ten units produced and six out of every ten units entering world trade. The output in the United Kingdom, now the second largest in. the world, is about one-tenth of that in the United States, but it is noticeable that the English industry was more steady during the depression. Production in the United States in 1933 fell to a quarter, and exports to barely onefifth, of the 1929 level. • Production in the United Kingdom, after a slight setback, recovered rapidly. In 1935 it reached 417,000 units, which was 75 per cent, above the figure for 1929. United Kingdom exports have made similar progress. The export of 72,400 units in 1935 was a new record, and exceeded that in 1929 by 30,000. Eighteen per cent, of the total went to Australia and fourteen per cent, to New Zealand, while South Africa and India each took eleven per cent

The Canadian industry, which felt the full force of the depression that so severly affected the United States, has not yet regained the high level of 1929. Exports, however, rose sharply in 1935 to 64,300 units, an increase of 21,000 over the previous year. Canada thereby supplanted France in the third place among exporting countries, and came within 8000 units of the United Kingdom total.