A BUILDING GLUT.

Colonist, Volume LIV, Issue 13479, 26 July 1912, Page 3

A BUILDING GLUT.

A Newcastle (England) correspondent of a shipping journal tells of a steamer now building for which tho owners have contracted to pay £37,000. They have now received what in business parlance is called a "firm offer" ©f £47,000 for her, yet so convinced are they that the ship will earn them money that they decline an immediate profit of £10,000. Another case quoted is that of, a cargo boat, 15 years old, has just been sold at £4 8s per ton, or within about £2 5s per ton of her original cost. There are doubtless scores of instances of a similar kind, and they do not seem altogether surprising when it is stated that a '-request for tenders by a Scottish firm of owners for a largo tramp steamer of superior type met with the discovery that no firm would , guarantee delivery before some time in 1914. The shipping barometer, apparently, is set fair, and nobody knows it better than steamship brokers.