PORTUGUESE INDUSTRY

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22486, 22 January 1943, Page 4

PORTUGUESE INDUSTRY

DURING the past two years industrial expansion in Portugal was general and profitable. Textiles, smallware, glass, paper, hardware, including cheap cutlery, sold Well at prices showing good profits, which nevertheless did not press unduly on local consumers. Technical direction is often foreign, frequently Central European refugees, but the (capital and labour are Portuguese, end such business, though each transaction is individually small, has in the aggregate been most beneficial to the country and its colonial markets. 'Recently, plans of much greater ecope have come to light, involving {foreign capital and foreign direction. {Permits have been given for the erection of three sulphate of ammonia elants; a tin-smelting and tinplate orks and an installation for preparing dyestuffs.

With the exception of one of the Chemical plants, which is an expansion of existing production by a jPortuguesc company of old standing, French and Belgian capital and ■direction, German-controlled, are {behind all these schemes. They are nndeed believed to have formed a jiart of the Greater Europe industrial plan worked out by Germany shortly before the fall of France; and in marketing the output, not only Portugal but also Brazil and parts of North and West Africa were envisaged. Had the Axis won the war, these works might have been deemed profitable; as things are to-day, even if war continues for a couple of years, their prospects are nebulous, while an earlier cessation of hostilities would mean a dead loss, since tinplate, chemical products. including artificial manure, and dyestuffs, can be. imported into Portugal far more cheaply than local production could provide. Nor does ihis take into consideration the fact that the volume of trade within Portugal itself is too small Io give national industries of this nature a profit commensurate with the capital necessary and the risks involved in dts employment.