Although the output from Clyde shipyards during June was exceptionally good, the total being the second best monthly figure this year, the the only contracts of importance placed were for two troop-carrying motor-ships for the P. & O. Line and the Libby Line respectively. These vessels will each be of 11000 tons.
The diminution in orders for merchant tonnage is probably due to the difficulty in obtaining steel supplies, the volume of warship construction on hand, and the soaring prices of raw materials. During June nine vessels were launched aggregate ing 38,764 tons, The six months just completed also has the best record of output on the river since 1930.
In the first half of the year 47 vessels of 165,999 tons have been launched—an increase over the sam* period last year of almost 40,000 tons, The January-June output of 1930, however, was 293,166 tons, so that, busy as the yards may be to-day, their output is still considerably lower than before the depression.
It is, however, a healthy sign that as soon as one vessel is consigned to the water from the Govan yard of Messrs, Harland and Wolff it has become the practice to lay the keel-plate of another. In the Clydebank yard of John Brown and Ca. the work on hand is valued at £20,000,000 Which is comparable with the activity of the War years,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.