THE Daily Telegraph WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WAIHI MINER WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 1921. THE SHIPPING OUTLOOK.

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XVIII, Issue 6158, 2 March 1921, Page 2

THE Daily Telegraph WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WAIHI MINER

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 1921. THE SHIPPING OUTLOOK.

Hero shall the Press the People’s Right maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribad by gain Here Patriot Truth her glorious preoepte drew, Pledged to Religion Libertv and Law.

In the course of an interview accorded to a Sydney newspaper a synopsis of which appeared in our cable columns yesterday Sir Henry Sammon, a leading English shipowner, takes a gloomy view of the shipping outlook, and predicts tj?e greatest slump ever experienced in the shipping world. Sir- Henry went on to say that the depression was only just coming, and that the slump was being brought about by the enormous shipbuilding programmes iu England and America), the result being that there were laid up at the present time in English anti American ports between six and seven million tons of shipping. If the figures given .are corrects and there is no reason to assume otherwise 1 , then exporters may look forward to qn early iredu'ction in freight charges which rose to an abnormal level during the war period in consequence of the shortage of tonnage, and the high insurance rates imposed upon vessels and cargoes traversing the war. zone. Such a reduction would he warmly welcomed, as it would help to compensate producers for the falling prices of the commodities they, are sending abroad. As to the cause of the impending fall in shipping charges it is quite evident, as the visitor stated, that the crisis which threatens is to be attributed to over-building. When some three or four years ago the British war sinkings amounted almost daily to many thousands of tons, the United States,, with visions of capturing the seaborne commerce of the worlds launched a mammoth .shipbuilding programme, which was pushed fev- ! ward with feverish activity. British owners!, fearing that they would be driven off the Seven Seas, followed suit, and those who met the American fever with equally hectic activity are now left bemoaning ithgir fate According to recently' furnished information the seaports of the United States are crowded with shipping of almost all classes in stages of semi-completion, while the expenditure of the. Board has reached the- formidable total of £000,000,000.- The Board is reported 'to be operating I'.SOO ships, and these a\'e sail not to bo earning sufficient do meet the actual depreciation charges. •When the building fever was at its height market rates for construction varied from £ls to £55 a ton; to-day new steamers can be bought for £2O a ton 1 , Iu view of 'the huge war costs for tonnage, and the overbuilding it would come as no surprise, to find keen competition and the putting of rates for both passenger carrying and cargoes at an eariy date.