The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

February, 1922 mand started earlier than usual ow- ing to the fact little progress had been made in the previous year with the shipment of the 1920 crop. In August, September and October the business in chartering vessels to load at ‘the St. Lawrence river ports ap- proximated the activity of many years ago. In other directions the demand for tonnage was disappointing, and the autumn months brought little of that improvement which at that sea- son is usually expected. For a con- siderable time comparatively high prices for grain in South America checked the demand. This was of a spasmodic character. In the early au- tumn it was swbstantial. Then quiet- ness prevailed, which was _ followed at the end of the year by another outburst of chartering. It was not- able that the outward coal freights and the homeward grain freights moved simultaneously, but in opposite directions, showing how a better out- ward freight could be made to com- pensate for a poorer homeward freight, and vice versa. The tonnage taken to load grain from Australia was not of the same Late News NE of the characteristics of the O British trader seems to be to minimize his gains and emphasize his losses. Perhaps this is a_ reflex of hundreds of years of association with the East. However, while a great deal is said in British shipping circles of the tremendous and very real losses of the past year, practically nothing is published concerning the operations of scores of astute English and Scotch shipowners who have made good profits on the decline in business just as they did on the rise. A case in point is Walter Runciman & Co., Ltd. London, owners of the Moor line. Nearly two years ago, fore- seeing the trend of events, this concern sold its entire fleet of 13 steamers for £1,800,000, or $7,500,000 at current ex- change. This sale netted the company about $115 a ton. Following the sale, the Moor line was liquidated, but the stockholders instead of paying assess- ments received £140 for each £10 share held. In December 1921, a new Moor line was organized by Walter Run- ciman & Co., starting off with four new ships purchased from defaulting Scandi- navian owners at about $40 a ton. This is not the only British shipping com- pany which, favored by seasoned ex- perience, has profited in a similar man- MARINE REVIEW large proportions as in 1920, and there should be a good deal of business to be done for Australia early in the new year. The scarcity of vessels in the East, owing to the lack of outward coal cargoes, led, in the sum- mer months, to a stiffening of the homeward freights, but the demand was satisfied fairly quickly and_ in the autumn rates weakened. In the search for employment, vessels were sent to the Pacific coast of North America. Freights in both directions were cut, and in some cases vessels intended to load homeward from Europe could not find sufficient car- goes and they were diverted to the Far East. Pessimism is not a_ habit which usually pays in business. Nor, as the experience of the last few years has shown, does tndte optimism. The experienced British owner faces the new year with neither undue _pessi- mism nor undue optimism. He knows that the present supply of tonnage is in excess of the world’s demand, and while he may do much to encourage commerce. by developing services he must be dependent, to a large extent, 49 on other factors, such as financial problems, which © affect the world’s trade for good or evil. He is quite sure, though, that he can best en- courage commerce by providing cheap transport. This means reducing all expenses to a workable minimum and being satisfied with a comparatively small margin of profit. He looks to the port authorities throughout the world and to those who guide the policy of the workers at the ports, to help him. Gradually, he hopes, the trade of the world will improve, the older and less efficient vessels will be broken up, and the demand for ship- ping will approximate more closely to the supply. Then there will be justification for the building of more ships—many of them, probably, mo- tor vessels. He hopes and_ believes that then there will be adequate remuneration for the capital employed. He does not expect the inflated prof- its of the war period to be repeated, but shipping cannot long be carried on at a loss. Since shipping is an absolutely essential industry, it follows that the businéss must be offered an adequate return for services rendered. from Foreign Shores ner. The fact that these old line op- erators are coming again into the mar- ket for ships indicates in.a general way that British shipowners feel the trough of the depression in world commerce has been reached. * * * B RITISH shipping companies have re- duced their freight rates on general cargo from the United Kingdom to the Pacific coast of North America to 25 shillings ($5.25) per ton, as compared with a previous rate of 40 shillings ($8.40) per ton. This is via the Panama~ canal and on favorable cargo, ship- owners are willing to shade the current rate to 20 shilling per ton ($4.20) mini- mum. * * * ECESSITY for further reductions in the cost of handling cargo in Great Britain was emphasized by Lord Inchcape in his recent address at the an- nual meeting of the Peninsular & Ori- ental line. He said that 650 British ships aggregating 1,117,092 tons are now laid up in the United Kingdom. This is 5.9 per cent of the total British mer- chant fleet. Lord Inchcape attributes this inactivity partly to the excessive cost of handling cargo in Great Britain which he says is 6 shillings ($1.25) a ton at Middlesbrough, against 2 shillings ($0.42) a ton at Antwerp. The low charges at Antwerp are perhaps ac- countable for the importance of this port in the trade of the continent. In 10 months. ended Oct. 31, 1921, Autwerp shows at aggregate tonnage entered of 9,189,763 tons, against 7,778,355 tons for Hamburg, 2,823,364 tons for Amster- dam and 9,215,882 tons for Rotterdam. * * * ‘S INDICATIVE of the low value of ships at the present time an auction held recently at the Baltic ex- change, London, is of special interest. A’ fleet of 10 cargo steamers aggre- gating 41,500 tons, the bankrupt Maindy fleet, was sold in 10 minutes for £290,- 000, or $1,215,000. This works out at: $29.30 per deadweight ton, a low figure considering that all of the steamers were practically new. The fact that the whole fleet was sold in such short order indi- ‘cates there is a market for tonnage at jthe present levels. The purchasers were Llewlyn, Merrett & Price, Cardiff, Wales, who expect to use the ships in the coal business which is showing some improvement. Welsh coal exports in fact are now. about. three-quarters of prewar level although freight rates are on an unremunerative basis