HC Deb 03 October 1944 vol 403 cc734-5
35. Mr. Graham White

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Economic Warfare if he has made any estimate of the losses in supplies of metal to Germany as a result of military events in recent months.

Mr. Foot

As the answer is a long one, I will, with my hon. Friend's permission, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.

Following is the answer:

My Department has made the following estimates of the enemy's recent losses of metals:

Iron:

As a result of active military operations in Lorraine and Luxembourg, the withdrawal of Swedish ships from trade with German ports and the closing of Swedish Baltic ports to German shipping, and the loss of supplies from Spain, it is estimated that the effective iron-in-ore supplies of the Reich have been reduced by 65 per cent. as compared with 1943. In addition, pig-iron manufacturing capacity to the extent of over 20 million tons (about 45 per cent. of the capacity available earlier in the year) has now been lost, as well as an equal tonnage of steel furnace capacity (representing about 40 per cent.).

Copper:

The enemy has recently lost contact with sources of copper ores at Bor in Yugoslavia and Outokumpu in Finland. while his supplies from Turkey and Spain have been cut off. The total intake of new metal has been reduced by about 60 per cent.

Lead:

By the loss of Yugoslavian and other Balkan mines supplies have been reduced by approximately 40 per cent., and the position has been worsened by the loss of substantial amounts of scrap metal which were being collected in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Chrome:

Recent events in Yugoslavia appear to have brought to a standstill all rail traffic to Germany, thus depriving the enemy of his entire supplies of chrome, which since the loss of Turkish output have all been acquired from Yugoslavia, Albania and Greece.

Molybdenum:

The loss of ores from Finland, Greece and Yugoslavia represents about two-thirds of total supplies.

Bauxite:

The high grade deposits in the South of France are believed to have furnished 40 per cent. of German supplies, while the French aluminium industry accounted for 15 per cent. of the total aluminium produced in German Europe. With the seizure by Marshal Tito's forces of the island fringe of Yugoslavia the enemy's total loss of bauxite appears now to exceed 50 per cent.

Cobalt:

Shipments from Finland represented the sole German external source of supply and constituted about 80 per cent. of the total quantity with which the enemy has sustained that part of his synthetic oil production obtained by the Fischer-Tropsch process.

Wolfram:

Under the agreement negotiated by His Majesty's Government and the United States Government with the Spanish Government earlier this year, it was still open for the Germans to obtain small monthly consignments from Spain. These have now of course been cut off, together with any appreciable possibility of smuggling wolfram from the Iberian Peninsula. The only other sources open to the enemy were blockade-runners from the Far East and very small deposits in France. There is now no prospect of his obtaining supplies from either source.