INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 254, 27 October 1938, Page 9

INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY

LEVEL IN BRITAIN VOLUME WELL MAINTAINED British trading activities are beingwell maintained, in spite of considerable difficulties in the general economic situation, states a recent bulletin issued by His Majesty's trade commissioner in Wellington. In the coal industry large orders have recently been received by British collieries from the Norwegian State Railways, and coal distillation is being constantly developed. One of the largest British plants for this process has made a net- profit this year of over £76,000, compared with £67,000 for the preceding year, in the steel industry the volume of new orders is on the increase, and the August output, when allowance is made for holiday closing down, shows improvement over the previous month. One of the iron and steel companies controlled by the well-known firm of Armstrong-Whitworth increased its profits this year by £7OOO, while an old-established concern, after being converted into a public company last year, has now declared a dividend of 20 per cent on the year’s trading. The same profit-earning capacity is to be observed in other groups of British finance and industry. British banks, discount houses and insurance companies have declared profits of £35,400,000 since the beginning of this year to the first week in September. In the same period firms engaged in the heavy industries increased their profits by £6,000,000, over 1937, other industrial companies improved their trading by nearly £2,000,000 to over £41,000,000, and rail, road and water transport enterprises made profits of £35,000,000 as compared with a year ago. Over the whole range of British financial and industrial there was a cumulative increase of over 7 per cent in profits for this year.