£23 MILLION RISE IN S.A. TRADE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 131, 4 June 1937, Page 11

£23 MILLION RISE IN S.A. TRADE

HUGE BALANCE IN FAVOUR OF UNION. South African trade for the first time in history topped the £200,000,000 mark in 1936, an increase of nearly £23,000,000 as compared with the previous year. The actual amount of trade in 1936 was £200,467,594, imports totalling £86,299,361 and exports £114,168,233. The value of gold was calculated on the basis of the prices ruling on the day of export. Merchandise imported into the Union last year was valued at £BO,129,370, as compared with £70,627, 405. These figures are given in the annual review of trade and shipping by the Department of Customs and Excise. Another record was broken in regard to the tonnage of goods landed at South African harbours last year. Excluding Lourenco Marques, the actual tonnage landed in South Africa amonted to 4,491,971, which means that there was an increase in the volume of import trade of 20.2 per cent. The average value of merchandise a ton landed last year was £17.33, as against £17.8 the previous year. South Africa continued to buy most of its requirements in the United Kingdom, these purchases being valued at £36,635,000, equal to 45.2 per cent, of the total. The United States, from which the Union bought goods worth £15,927,157 (19.6 per cent.), was second, Germany with £4,301,909 (5.3 per cent.) third, Japan fourth with £3,065,329 (3.8 per cent. 7, and Canada fifth with £2,882,089 (3.6 per cent.). These countries have maintained the order they held the year before, but Belgium has come up to sixth ’place, while India has dropped to Iseventh. France, which was twelfth last year, is now fourteenth, and Finland, which was fifteenth, is now thirteenth. There was a drop of 2.8 per cent, in the value of goods imported from the United Kingdom, and an increase of 1.9 pen cent, in goods imported from the United States.