§ Mr. P. Williamsasked the First Lord of the Admiralty what benefit the shipbuilding industry received from increased steel supplies during 1954.
§ Mr. J. P. L. ThomasLargely as a result of improved steel supplies, the tonnage of new merchant ships completed in United Kingdom shipyards in 1954 rose to 1.5 million gross tons, the highest output since the war. The126W tonnage launched also rose to a level which has only once been exceeded since 1930. The figure for tonnage on which building started in the last quarter of 1954 was the highest on record for any quarter of any year since the war. Finally, the United Kingdom share of tonnage under construction throughout the world rose slightly from 35 per cent, in 1953 to 37 per cent, in 1954.