SWEDENS VITAL ROLE The Wanganui Chronicle.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 85, 12 April 1940, Page 10

SWEDENS VITAL ROLE The Wanganui Chronicle.

GERMAN DEPENDANCE ON IRON ORE INTERESTING COMMENT Sweden’s vital w role in Northern Europe revolves around two visible factors and one “hidden” commitment, says the Christian Science Monitor. Reports of possible Swedish negotiation of peace between Finland and Russia disclosed the diplomatic tie. Discussions of Swedish men and arms which were aiding the Finns revealed the military tie. But it is ore—Swedish ore which is vital to Germany in its prosecution of the war—which is one of the unseen influences in determining Stockholm’s policy. Reports from Sweden disclose that there has been a tendency to overestimate the importance of Swedish iron orq to the Reich. No one pretends that it is not a vital factor. Nor is there any doubt of the fact that Germany would apply extreme pressure to keep this strategic material coming to the Reich’s smelters. Normally Germany imports about 10,000,000 tons of Swedish ore annually. But a cut in imports was seen last month when only 38,000 tons of ore, instead of the usual 700,000 ton monthly consignment, was reported to have been shipped to Germany. This drop is doubtless due in large part to the British blockade and the frozen water route through the Baltic Sea. However, the often repeated conclusion that German iron manufacture would collapse if debarred from imports of iron ore was sharply contradicted recently by Gerard de Geer, a Swedish mining engineer and Member of Parliament. Importance of Iron Ore. The relative importance of iron ore as a raw material in the production of iron and steel has declined, Mr. de Geer states in a current issue of Le Nord. Substitution of scrap iron for ore in the manufacture of steel was given’as an explanation for this decline by Mr. de Geer, who cited statistics showing that German production of steel m 1938 exceeded by 8,000,000 tons the total domestic ore and imported orc available. Iron is not literally “used up” in those different spheres where it is employed, according to Mr. de Greer, and the bulk of all “consumed” iron returns at long or short intervals to the iron works in the form of scrap. Thus Germany's additional 8,000,000 tons of iron produced in 1938 was derived from scrap iron, and Mr. de Goer concludes that the proportion between ore and scrap is about the same in Sweden as in Germany, Swedish iron works using practically 100 per cent, iron ore. Germany’s Dependence. ! Unfortunately, Mr. de Geer adds,

economic and metallurgic factors do not merge entirely. Economically Germany’s dependence on iron ore imports is greatly exaggerated. Metalthe high percentage of phosphorous and iron in Swedish export ores, which have given a special character to the German metallurgic processes, are necessary in the making | of precision instruments and gun borings. Germany’s resources of scrap iron total about 10,000,000 tons, according to German figures. But this figure is probably far too high, Mr. de Geer states, although it is nevertheless true that large reserves of this kind exist which can be mobilised in case of an emergency.