Ocean shipping

Title

Ocean shipping

Creator

Gispert, F. M.

Language

English

Source

The American Chamber of Commerce Journal Volume XXV (Issue No.10) October 1949

Year

1949

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

444________________■ AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL____________October, 1949 from Europe, and especially Great Britain. The per centage of smashed and Bad Order cargo arriving from the United States was out of all proportion to that coming from the European countries. As a direct consequence, there was a very high rate of pilferage of this merchandise and an unne cessary loss of time and money was imposed on the local importers. Added to which, laborers on the piers worked under insuperable difficulties in their endeavors to save as much of the broken cargo as pos sible for the unfortunate importers. With an im provement in packing, the pilferage on the docks will be cut down greatly and at the same time work will be vastly simplified. At the time of writing, speculation is rife along the waterfront as to the possible effect of the deva luation of the Pound Sterling on local imports and ex ports, but it is obviously too early to be able to ha zard any kind of an accurate guess as to what the ef fects will be. A crystal ball might be of some help, but incoming cargoes have so far been singularly lacking with regard to this particular commodity. Ocean Shipping By F. M. Gispert Secretary, Associated Steamship Lines THE general trend of increased total exports was maintained during the month of August, as compared with August last year, due mainly to an increase in ore exports over last year. Ninety-seven vessels during last August lifted 162,829 tons, as against 84 ships and 107,825 tons during August last year. Exports of the main commodities during August of this year, as compared with the same month last year, are as follows: fecc Alcohol .................. 1.94 9 27 tons 1W 108 tons Coconut, desiccated . 8,090 ” 8,801 ” 3,095 ” Coconut oil ............ Concentrates, 5,300 ” copper ............... Concentrates, 2,924 ” 127 ” gold .................... 520 ” 41 ” Copra .................... 62,190 ” 37,114 ” Copra cake/meal .. 6,541 ” 2,215 ’’ Embroideries ........ 133 ” 138 ” Empty cylinders . . 235 ” 244 ” Fish, salted — dried 43 ” 3 ” Furniture, rattan . 251 ” 511 ” Gums, copal ......... 50 ” 86 ” Hemp .................... 33,108 bales 32,402 bales Hemp, knotted .... 14 tons 1 tons Household goods .. 166 ” 97 ” Junk, metal .......... 380 ” 8,557 ” Kapok ................... 25 ” 74 ” Logs ....................... 3,497,563 board 1,072,748 ” feet 1,241,330 board 1,651,839 ” Lumber ................. Molasses ................ 504 tons _ Ores, chrome ........ 26,000 ” 15,500 tons ” iron ............ 25,052 ” — ” manganese 1,000 ” — Pineapples, canned. 3,976 ” 1,017 ” Rattan, Palasan .. 28 ” 179 ” Rope ...................... 288 ” 362 ” Rubber .................. 71 ’’ 146 ” Shells .................... 34 ” 25 " Skins, hides .......... 41 ” 18 ” Sugar, raw ........... 3,398 ” 15,105 ” Tobacco ................ 319 ” — ELECTRIC LOAD HANDLINGCorner Tacoma & Second Streets, Port Area, Manila Telephones: 2-67-47, 2-68-48 & 2-67-59 WORKS Branch nt B A C O L O D, Occidental Negros Many users report savings as high as 50 in their handling costs — thanks to P&II Ilevi-Lift Hoist. These wide-awake businessmen take advantage of electric power for quick lifting. . . carrying. . . lo wering and placing of heavy loads — up to 15 tons — all without rehandling. Why not sec how you can make such savings in time and money? See your local dis tributors. The P&H Hen-Lift • Capacities up to 15 tons. • Operates on hook, jib or trolley. • Available for AC or DC current. ELECTRIC HOIS1 Main Otfcw and PItnl: Milwaukee 14. Wb.. U.S.A. October, 1949 ______ AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 445 Vegetable oil products ............ Transit cargo ....... General merchandise .... 50 282 1,222 202 141 3,166 Mining By Chas. A. Mitke Consulting Mining Engineer August Production:— Acoje Mining Co..................... Atok-Big Wedge ..................... Benguet-Balatoc ..................... Consolidated Mines ............... Mindanao Mother Lode.......... Misamis Chrome ..................... Surigao Consolidated ............. Lepanto Consolidated ............ 8,624 191,250.00 1,424,700 lbc. cu ) 2,068 oz. gold ) Tons Value 5,500 165,000.0# 12,534 361,839.00 49,936 711,900.e0 15,000 303,000.00 9,900 304,636.76 527,250.00 EVERYONE, from the highest government official down to the smallest businessman, is exercised over the all-absorbing topic of how to balance exports and imports in order to conserve the dollar reserves of the country. The main solution offered, so far, is to curtail imports, but as everyone knows, such a procedure can be carried to the vanishing point; that is, if exports continue to decrease and imporis are curtailed correspondingly, eventually a condition could be reached where there would be a 100 <}'<> embargo on imports and the people would suf fer immeasurable hardships. For nearly 30 years now, a large proportion of the population of .this country has come to look upon bread made of im ported white flour as a necessary part of its daily diet. If the importation of flour were prohibited, as would be the case if eventually we arrived at a 100 7© embargo on imports, we would then be on the way to attain what the Japanese recommended as the ideal co-prosperity state for the Filipino people; namely, “abolition of all motor transportation with the con sequent abandonment of good roads; a universal diet of fish, rice, and camotes; clothes made of home-spun materials; and the majority of the population engaged in the production of raw materials for its more ad vanced and industrialized neighbor—Japan”. A drastic curtailment of imports is not the solu tion or cure-all for our present conditions; rather, if the same interest, enthusiasm, publicity, and energy were devoted to the increase of our exports that is being shown in the curtailment of imports, we might eventually hope to achieve the dream of some of our more enlightened citizens—that is, that the Philip pines shQuld become the distributing point for all Asia and the center of all commerce, such as it was in the old days, when goods from every part of the Orient were collected in the Philippines for shipment to Me xico and Spain on galleons built of lumber from Min doro. Here we have the land on which can be grown sufficient rice to eliminate the necessity of purchases from abroad, filling all needs of our people and eliminating the sending of dollars abroad for this product. As in Japan and Formosa, the use of fer tilizers here would greatly increase the present yield, and arrangements to permit local capitalists to plant large-scale by machine-methods would greatly reduce the cost of production. We have forests of beautiful hardwood, such as mahogany, which is needed by other nations. We have hemp, coconuts, and sugar in quantity, and last but not least, before the war, we had a promising mining industry with a Pl00,000,000 production, which, with a little government help, can again be revived and possibly expanded. During the last 6 months, information has been continually coming in of rich mineral discoveries along the east coast of Luzon, in the Visayan Islands, in Mindanao, and elsewhere throughout the Philippines. All that these new finds need is a little venture capital to test them out in depth so that investors will be en couraged to carry on the work begun by the pros pectors. From one newly discovered deposit alone, a smal shipment of 150 tons of ore has been made run ning 400 ounces of silver and 62 71 lead with a gross value of P948 per ton. A second shipment will follow shortly. Several other equally interesting dis coveries not quite so rich, have also been made. The business community is naturally in favor of any plan which will furnish the initial impetus to convert these mines of tomorrow into additional new operating mines of today; thus, resuscitating —TS^Blue Ribbon— Distributors: F. E. ZUELLIG, INC. 55 Rosario St., Manila Tel. 2-95-43 Hear MUSIC ANA-DZMBfnc/ays 7:00~7:30 P.M.

pages

444-445

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