Inevitable Says Lloyd's Boss

A major rationalisation of the British shipbuilding industry, with some of the yards going out of business, was inevitable, said the chairman of Lloyd's Register of Shipping, Mr, A.C. Grover, on November 20th. Mr. Grover, who had just returned from a six-week tour of the Far East, which included visits to Japanese shipyards, stressed the speed at which Japanese yards built. The general level of productivity, he said, so far as large oil tankers and bulk carriers was concerned appeared to be twice as high as in Britain. In this country, said Mr. Grover, there "must be a concerted effort by the unions to overcome the handicap of delayed delivery and of slow production," Compaing the British and Japanese shipbuilding industries he did not think that Japanese wages were much lower than in the U.K. With "fringe" benefits included, he stated, there was little to choose between theme When asked how he would like to see rationalisation proceed in the U.K. Mre Grover suggested the grouping - financially and in the industrial organisation sense = of the bigger shipyards in such areas as the Tyne and the Clyde, "There is a large number of yards in this country competing for the same sort of business," he declared, There was also a considerable amount of "overlapping" at the design and drawing office stages, In terms of modern equipment a number of British shipyards were as well or even better equipped than the best Japanese yards, "Many of our yards, I am sure, can turn out ships as quickly and as cheaply as Japan, given some rationalisation and good will between managements and unions," concluded Mr. Grover. It is to be hoped that active trade unionists will take note of the incversing talk of “rationalisation" of the shipyards, Despite all the honeyed talk of “the national interest", etc., we know that moves will be taken without any regard for the social consequences of large scale shutting down of yards.