Document b5VdLD3OGgrgXNmn31MEBJXo3

i LEAD INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION_________ 4S0 LOONOTON AVMUC NCW VOW I?, M. r. mt ausmimi ocnon cm l ead * Oeorg* I. .Usoaye, Tie* President C. Tennant, Son* k Co, Thia year the tapir* Mining h Metallurgical Contrast la heing hold la Australia and aa Broken HI11 Associated Soalttrs P*y. Ltd. la on* of tb* boat* at thia function, which txtanda over a rather protracted period, our Australian friends unfortunately hara been usabl* to sand a representative fraa within their am ranks to this atsting. They have, however, prepared a paper entitled *11 AUSTBAUAJI OUTLOOK Oil LZAIP which I aa honored to have been requested to read to you. Those of fxn who know at are wall aware of the fact that X aa not an Australian. But this paper, prepared in Australia end written in the first person, world loss Its Talus as an Australian viewpoint, if I wars to paraphrase it. I shall therefore pretend that I aa an Australian, and for the sonant, cn official of Broken Bill As*^ elated Smelter* Pty. ltd. It is always a (rest pleasure for us In ths Australian lead Industry to has* the opportunity to aodreei a meting of the Lead Industries Association. It is perhaps s reflection of ths international acope and common problems of the Industry that these invitations, which we appreciate so such, hare hewn extended. Since Frank Greon, the Manager of cur Port Plrle taelter speke at a Beetles of ths Asso ciation in Chicago a year a(o, producers have suffered * severe and in soae eases crippling blow as s result of ths setback to ertal prices, and I hop* that you will permit bs to cregent briefly an ths present position. Sine* the reopening of the London Metal exchange for lead in October last we have been operating in a free coaqwtitiv* eeriest under conditions that look to be very siallar to tho** that applied between the two ware. Producers haws undoubtedly benefited fm* the high octal prices of the lert few ytere, which were et least partly due to such Gcvemnental action as stockpiling, bulk buying, and price con trols, but as a result of tho** prices, we sust carry for scat* tine to cogs, the burdens cf high capital charges, high wages (particularly la the fora of fringe benefit*) and high production. There seen* to be no growda for belief that ths danand for nsv alned lead will not, in ths long term, be as great or svsn greater than it is at the aeam&t, History has shewn that where lead has lost out to substitutes in on* field of con f sumption it ha* gained in others, and additionally there are vast numbers of people in ths world who would constitute an inene* demand for lead if their living ttend er'd* were rmleed to on* quarter of our own. In regard to ths United States I aa ePresented at the 25th Annual Meetir* of the Lead Industrie* Association April 9-10, 1953, ftslt* Sulphur Springy V, Va. miiniSMvea..U.JtWUUW"1. JU'iaWSSWIWUfas.^S mmm^mmmrn.mmmmmimmiimimm '^-T wp . -- ** - --rr*-------*'Tn"r ri i-'*"t Si*fi1g,')iii in1' --' mmm rnmmm LI A16442 A --.I? I '1 1"*%- r-*--"- An iustralisn Outlook on Lead * * * Ooorge ( Blaesye aware that doubt* boro h_on cut on the figures In thn Psltgr Report, but even ao nil theso factor* nut ail up to tho foot that load ruaourou*, u c know than# will eventually bo eovorely taxed to Boot requirononta. Whether tbo presont depressed market condition* bo abort lirod or long 11rod a* cannot forosoe, .ut If *a believe in tho no-Mi for all available load* the problem of producers at tba noeect la to su'-ir.tain their capital Intact and to safoguard tba Intoreata of labour and stockholder* during tha Interim period# Because of tba pt^ilenl location of tba world's load rosourcos, tbo lnrgust oonsuaurs oust import# and# excluding tha United Stutos, producer* mat export. It la also true that a 1 ego proportion of tha production in tha exporting countries la owned by lnvostor* in the conducing countries. (It la probable that nine produAtlon outside the United States controlled by Anorleon investors la approaching tho equal of U.S.A. dasestio production). I don't think therefore that I can be accaaad of advocating on tha part of Broken Hill only when I say that It aeons to as true that tha continued welfare of 11 producer* 1* a setter of importance to neabar* of this Association. Tou will recall that I referred a nowmt ago to the fact that free market con ditions near obtaining are tidier to those that existed durin,. tha twenties and thirties# Those decade* were not very prosperous ones for lead producers. Although tha market In 1918 woe able to absorb the Brl.lsh Qovemect lead stocks, which were 3 three times what they were is 1952, lead never made s very spectacular sharing daring the twenties, end by 1931 It was necessary for ex-United States producers to eat their production to first eighty-fire and then eighty percent of their 1930 totals# Eventually the Industry achieved a not very substantial stability by the Isolation of tha United States and the British Ccaacrmetlth fron the world's oarkete and the sacrifice of Vexlco and other South Ancrlcan producers. It is interesting to not* in passing that the influence of silver, which rose in price In 193k and gave South American producers aone relief, baa now gr.atly declined aa a factor In the eececnle* of lead production# We have no wiah to return to the day* when we hed eighty thousand tans of what we tented "delayed* lead stacked on the wharf st Fort Plrle. It also appear* to be lr^ractlcal, particularly in tha face of current aovea towards a liberalisation at trade* for any country or eccnodc union of countrlos to taka drastic steps to pro tect its own section of the industry without buth dscaglng its investors (thus making the whole industry less attractive to capital) and endangering Its own supplies. On tha short tens aspect of whieh I aa spooking# an at least partial solution for pro ducers seems therefore to lie in taking steps, whore possible, to naintain consump tion of lead in its present fields of usage, to investigate all possible new us*** and to examine all methods of reducing ocsts# In regard to existing consuKption there a*earn to be a ease for what night be tamed improved publio relations, a field In wldeh ve appreciate our own shortccning*# Wa should ensure that tha aarvloa we give our eustanar* la at least aa good and if 0 possible batter than they could obtain fron producer* of ecqmtltlv* substitutes, I an thinking here particularly of such things os handling nothods and the slse and shape of pl'S, alloying and purity, and rvsearch on technical problems misted to constatr requireaents. ft cust also recognise that lead, oed sine, are losing out to substitutes which enjoy tha great benefit of beir^ free frm major price fluctua tions, and on this point there nay possibly be roon for restraint on tbs part of oonauner* aa wall aa producer*# wp im 'hhh)nmpumwgynu iDpifwwMNP*i*^ j. IP +*'Sb* i LI A16443 A An Australian Outlook on Lead ""~3 3-".............. 0 George *. Biscay* Improvement In production coat* must everrtaally be of benefit to all connected with th# load industry. It would bs nry unwise to believe that the aoet efficient and ehoapeet methods of dnlng end swelling haw* yet bean perfected. Althou^j cbewl-- cal extraction process** that have bean recently Introduced ar* at th* woment ccxv* fined to t)>a recovery of such aatala aa copper and cobalt It ***** not ilpoeslbl* that similar procesaea dll be developed for laad and tine. Sulphur recovery fro* lead concentrates msy slao become increasingly attractive. r fras what Z have said you will father that we In Broken Rill vira the future optimistically but with a certain aaount of caution. In our own Industry we hope that costs will steady up new that the persistent rounds of wife Increases with which oe have been dogged for the last few years appear to have subsided. Sa*Her production at Port Pixie will be about on* hundred and sixty four thousand too* for the year ended June 30th, 1953. looked *t generally, conditions In lustre11a ere not buoyant, tad w* are sufferir* froa a capital shortage that has unfortunately aide it necessary to defer the completion of several major national porar scheme* and other Industrial projects particularly in the textile and paper Industrie*. There has been a swing tewazds the left in States1 Qoveirmsnt which say possibly spread to the Federal sphere, and it la perhaps now unlikely that th* lustrelisa mining industry will receive in the near future coooesaions In th* tax field that would put it on a par with producers, aey, in the Cnited State* or Canada. It ha* been gratifying to note, however, the decline of the influeno* of extremist left wing elements, particularly in the trade union*. ft In th* wiring world th* principal event* of the peat year have been th* com missioning of th* new will and haulage equipment In the Sew Broken Rill Consolidated ala*, the completion of the Mount Ism copper smelter, and p*rh.-p* wore slgnlfLcahtlj th* discovery of the great uranium resources of the Northern Territory. is a result of th* urcnlta discoveries, the establishment of guided mleslle proving grounds, and other factors, luatr lla is becking of increasing strategic importance, a principle that has perhaps been ra:g\iici by the need for the Australia, New Zealand, Onited State* pact, is baslo development procoods It way be necessary to ettreet an increasingly greater flow of overseas capital, pertlcelarly dollar investment. Prosperity for /.uetrnlla depends to e large extent on th* level of business activity in th* Cnited States, and in a more restricted field the Australian lead industry Is equally dependent on the prosperity of adning and ooosiMing interest* here, "ithout e healthy lead sdning Industry In the T.3.A. the search for substitutes would inevitably have been greatly accelerated. i ( In England we era taking step* to ex;*nd th* scop* of th* lead Industrie* Develojaent Council, whose activities as you know have hitherto bera confined to certain sections of th* trade, and I hop* that it will be possible to aointaia lncreesingly doe* contact* between th* Council and this Association. Only by gdi*' cut to **11 lead and it* product* oea the good fortune of the industry be upheld at Ite present level. 9 That gentlemen, is th* Broken Rill Associated Baelter Pty. ltd. outlook on lead. jn y jn n ^ u i "V