The Position of the German Cement Industry

Progress, Volume XI, Issue 7, 1 March 1916, Page 574

The Position of the German Cement Industry

The German cement industry has, says a correspondent of “Engineering,” fared badly during the war, and the Halberstadt Chamber of Commerce has, on its behalf, made an appeal to the military authorities to consider the Central German cement industry in connection wth their requirements of cement in the occupied enemy districts. The Central German Cement Works have an annual aggregate capacity of 5,000,000 barrels, and a capital of 20,000,000 marks is invested in the industry. The export trade, which under ordinary conditions accounts for about two-fifths of the total production, has entirely ceased and the wants of the private building industry arc but small, during the present year a sale of not more than one-fourth of the average aggregate production has been realized. The war certainly has made matters materially worse, but even if the war had not happened a satisfactory outcome of the work of the Cement Union could hardly have been expected.

The adverse conditions from which the union suffers will also remain after the war. For years to come remunerative trading by the union will be handicapped by the forward sales of several works not belonging to the union. Amongst the unhappy Kartel agreements must be reckoned that with the blast-furnace cement works. The allowance of one penny per barrel is out of all proportion to the harm done to the union by the way in which the blast-furnace cement works undersell the union. The position of the Cement Union is becoming so critical that the question of a premature dissolution of the union invited serious consideration. Even if it would be possible to persuade the outside workers to join the union, of which there seems but very little prospect, this -would only lead to the formation of new outside works. The aggregate production of the outside works up to the. autumn of 1915 may be put at about 1,000,000 barrels, which figure probably will be doubled by the end of 1916, a quantity which, with the production of the Kartel works, will suffice to supply the demand of the area in question, in any case approximately, the more so as the union of blast-furnace cement works and other outside concerns will probably grasp the lion’s share of the increased business which may be expected after the war.