§ 109. Mr. Willeyasked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation the amount of tonnage ordered abroad by British 102W shipowners during 1955; and how this compares with the amount ordered abroad during the corresponding period last year.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterI have no official information about the orders placed by British shipowners abroad. I understand, however, that, of the tonnage under construction in September, 1955, for United Kingdom registration, about 110,000 gross tons, or 7 per cent., was being built abroad, as compared with about 94,000 gross tons, or 6 per cent., in September, 1954. New orders amounting to 1,366,000 gross tons were booked by United Kingdom shipyards in the first nine months of 1955, whereas, in the corresponding period of 1954, the tonnage of new orders barely equalled the cancellations, and there was no net addition to the total tonnage on order.