In recent months, the U.S. tinplates industry has operated at less than 35 per cent. of capacity, while outside America the average rate has re: mained below. 50 per cent. According to the International Tin Research and Development Council, the world's tinplates output was only 688,000 long tons in the third quarter of this year, against 730,000 tons and 743,000 tons in the two preceding quarters, respectively. The quarterly average for 1937 was as high as 1,064,000 tons. In addition to the tinplates industry, the automobile industry, which is the second largest tin-consuming trade, suffered from serious depression in 1938. The world output of automobiles was only 637,000 vehicles in the third quarter, compared with 968,000 and 1,016,000 units respectively in the two preceding quarters, and with a quarterly average for 1937 of 1,590,000 vehicles. In these circumstances, it is not surprising that the world's apparent tin consumption was only 116,300 long tons in the first nine months of this year, the latest neried for which figures are available. This figure represented a decline of 32400 tons, or 21.9 per cent, on the year. In the United States, the United Kingdom and Soviet Russia, the world's largest tin consuming countries, which last year were responsible for about.70 per cent. of the total world consumption, the rate of decline was even greater than the average for the world as a whole. The falling off was as much as 416 per cent. in the U.S.A. and 285 per cent. and 273 per cent. respectively in the UK. and Soviet Russia respectively.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.