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INDUSTRY AND TRADE
products, optical and photographic equipment, paint, vacuum flasks, and furniture and furnishings. The manufacture of hair wigs has developed dramatically during the last two years, the principal market being the United States. Despite serious problems concern- ing an acceptable source of supply for raw hair and the certification of the finished products, exports during 1966 were valued at $71 million. Some 15,000 workers are employed in the manufacture of wigs.
HEAVY INDUSTRIES
Hong Kong's major shipyards are equipped to build ocean-going vessels of over 10,000 tons deadweight and also to construct and install their engines. At the other end of the scale, pleasure-craft and utility vessels of all kinds including ocean-going yachts, vehicle and passenger ferries, sloops, cruisers, speedboats of wood and fibre glass, yawls and steel lighters are regularly produced for local use and for export. The traditional Chinese junk, slightly modified from the basic design used for many centuries, has also been exported as a comfortable and stable pleasure-craft.
Activity in the shipbreaking industry has declined considerably; the number of ships broken up during 1966 dropped to a record low. Most of the scrap obtained from shipbreaking operations is used in steel rolling mills which produce mild steel bars, window sections, angles and channels and other metal products used in building construction. Although some rods and bars are shipped abroad, principally to South-East Asian countries, the mills rely heavily on domestic sales and supply a large part of the requirements for the local building industry. Several rolling mills produce brass and aluminium sheets and circles, most of which are used for the manufacture of consumer goods. Recently the industry has had to face severe competition from imported bars and rods and some mills are operating at reduced capacity as a result. The steel rolling industry highlights an important feature of the present state of development of heavy industry in Hong Kong. Hong Kong's separation from its principal markets is among the factors which have produced a concentration of resources on light industry while heavy industry has developed only where a domestic market was available. Two relatively new industrial ventures illustrate this point. The demands of the construction industry have resulted in