ENG-1954 — Page 106

HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT, 1954

Other heavy industries in Hong Kong are repre- sented by 12 iron foundries, employing 400 workers, and 5 mills for rolling iron and steel bars and rounds, employing about 1,000 workers. The bulk of produc- tion is utilized locally, but some is shipped to other South East Asian territories. Facilities exist for con- verting steel scrap, obtained locally from ship breaking, into mild steel reinforcing bars for building construction and other purposes in Hong Kong and other South East Asian countries.

Light Industries

A wide range of light industries exists in the Colony manufacturing varied products of increasingly good quality. The most important of these industries are described below.

Textiles. The textile industry has expanded rapidly since 1948 and now employs the largest labour force in the Colony, estimated at over 30% of the total number of workers employed in registered and recorded fac- tories. There are 17 cotton spinning mills in Hong Kong operating at present a total of 246,942 spindles and employing over 11,500 workers. The addition of 28,000 spindles at an early date is contemplated. Counts of yarn spun range from 10s to 60s carded and combed and can be supplied in single or multiple threads. Total output based on 20s counts is about 98,950,000 lbs. weight of yarn per annum, exported largely to Indonesia, Pakistan, Burma, South Korea, and the Philippines. Several of the mills have installed most modern combing plants and have changed over to roller bearing spindles in order to improve quality and

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