HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT, 1954
Manufacturing Industries
General. Certain industries, such as shipbuilding and repairing, have existed in Hong Kong for many years, but the present widespread industrial develop- ment started only in the nineteen thirties, when local manufacturers first began to take advantage of Imperial Preference to market products such as flashlights and rubber footwear in Commonwealth countries. Since then industrial development has gone ahead with increasing rapidity, particularly since the second world war.
Pre-war records of local industry were lost during the Japanese occupation but it is estimated that there were about 800 registered and recorded factories and workshops in 1940, with about 30,000 workers. At the end of 1947 the number of factories had risen to 1,275 with 64,500 workers, and at the end of 1954 the corres- ponding figures were 2,381 factories, with 111,879 workers.
In 1940 the main industries were shipbuilding and repairing, rubber footwear, flashlights, weaving, knit- ting, metalware, enamelware and food products. Since 1945 the scope of local industry has broadened consider- ably and now includes cotton and wool spinning, nylon knitting, aluminium and brass rolling and stamping, kerosene refining, silk screen printing, egg packing, and the production of drinking straws, tapestries, woollen gloves, fire extinguishers, rolled steel bars, gramophone records, electric irons, kettles and clocks, pressure lamps, plasticware, and many other items.
In 1954 a large modern flour mill and a zip fastener factory were established, and the production of artificial pearls and other imitation jewellery, steel window frames, automatic kerosene water heaters, and photo-
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