SHIPYARDS BUSY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20781, 16 July 1937, Page 9

SHIPYARDS BUSY

HIGH TONNAGE IN BRITAIN British Official Wireless (Received July 15, 6.30 p.m.) RUGBY, July 14. Another substantial increase in the mercantile tonnage under construction in the United Kingdom shipyards is shown in the return for the quarter ended June 30 issued by Lloyds register. The present total of 1,199,973 tons is an increase of 185,519 on that of the preceding quarter, and is the highest quarterly total returned for the last seven years, Britain is building more tonnage than the aggregate now under construction in Germany, Japan, the United States and Holland, which are the four leading shipbuilding countries abroad.

During the last three months British yards began work on 367,698 tons of new merchant vessels, an increase of 114,205 tons compared with the previous quarter. The total tonnage now under construction in other countries is 1,682,887 tons, about 245,000 tons above the March figure. The figures for leading shipbuilding countries are: Germany 416,881 tons, Japan 818,277, United States 198,652, Holland 188,464, Sweden 138,720. Of the world’s total of 2,882,860 tons now under construction, British yards are building 41.6 per cent. About 100,000 tons, equal to 8.3 per cent of the tonnage now building in British yards, is intended for registration abroad or for sale.