-2-
Japanese cement in barrels: Hong Kong selling price
i
10
$2.30 por barrel (May, 1934).
Tokio wholesale selling price
2
Yon 4.50 = $3.60 per barrel
(May, 1934).
165
4.
It was claimed by the Company that the selling
price of $2.30 per barrel in Hong Kong, including freight
and insurance, could not possibly cover cost of production
Independent enquiry by the Commission, however,
in Japan.
does not entirely bear out this claim.
Figures given in
(114) show that the wholesale price in Japan of cement in
barrels ranges from Yon 4.07 (= $3.25) to Yen 4.77 (= $3.81)
per barrel, that the nett cost of production is Yen 2.50
(= $2.00) to Yen 2.80 (= $2.24) and that freights are
nominally Yon 1.62 (= $1.30) to Yen 1.80 (= $1.44) per
metric ton, but that in point of fact large exporters can
secure very much cheaper freightage in tramp steamers, and
that consequently the selling price in Hong Kong of $2.30
(= Yen 2.875) is slightly in excess of the cost of production,
porhaps sufficiently in excess to leave room for cheap
freight and insurance.
5.
While, therefore, the Commission are prepared
to accept the fact that Japanese competition is undoubtedly
one of the main causes of the difficulties
6.
with which the
Groen Island Cement Company has to cont end, it does not
appear from the evidence before them that such competition
can be stigmatized as entirely uneconomic and unfair.
It is certain that Japan is making full use of
the benefits of a protected home market and of a low
exchange to keep down the price of her exports and it is
cvcn possible that the full time working of factories may