INDUSTRY AND TRADE
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were completed; Hong Kong-built yachts and pleasure craft con- tinued to enjoy a well deserved popularity in overseas markets; and a large motor vessel which had been driven ashore in a typhoon at the entrance to the Harbour was salvaged and is now undergoing extensive repairs.
The Naval Dockyard, which is practically of an age with the Colony, began to close during the year. The circumstances of its closure are dealt with fully elsewhere in this Report, but it is appropriate to mention it in connexion with the Colony's industry, the more particularly as it was made available on occasion for work on merchant vessels when the civil dockyards were fully engaged. It employed over 5,000 men, many of them highly skilled, had a local pay-roll of some $12,000,000 a year and indirectly brought other extensive benefits to the Colony. The loss of this industry must be regarded as a serious blow to Hong Kong's economy.
Iron Foundries and Rolling Mills. Other heavy industries rep- resented in Hong Kong are iron foundries and mills rolling iron and steel reinforcing bars and rounds, and brass and aluminium strips and sheets. Production is mostly absorbed locally by exten- sive building projects and the metal products industries, although sizeable quantities of bars and rounds are shipped abroad, princi- pally to Asian territories.
11
LIGHT INDUSTRIES
lothing
Textiles. Since 1948 the textile industry has expanded rapidly to become the Colony's major industry) Spinning of cotton, rayon, silk and woollen yarns, weaving, knitting, dyeing and finishing, and the manufacture of all types of garments and textile goods are carried on. The spinning mills, operating over 350,000 spindles, are amongst the most up-to-date in the world and first class amenities are generally provided for workers. Cotton yarn counts range from 10s to 60s carded and combed in single or multiple threads. Production of all counts in 1958 was over 120,000,000 lbs., the greater part of which was consumed by local weaving establishments.
In the weaving section, cotton grey drill, canvas, shirting, striped poplins, ginghams, and other bleached and dyed white cloth and