LEAD AND ZINC OUTLOOK Coming so recently after the rearrangement
of the British import duties on zinc and the new effort to obtain an inter- national agreement on that metal, Lord Home's speech at Wednesday's meeting of the Zinc Corporation was naturally hopeful. The present rate of consumption of lead and zinc is, in his view, very high, and the stocks which had risen rapidly following the speculative boom of 1936 are now steadily declining. The outlook for silver is obscure, but Zinc Cor- poration is less concerned with silver than are the other companies operating in the Broken Hill area of Australia. Taking all three metals together, he feels that prices in the second half of 1939 will be definitely more profitable than those realised up to June.
The company is planning progressively to extend its output up to a maximum of 750,000 tons of ore a year, but the more immediate objective is 450,00o tons—a figure which will, it is hoped, be reached this year. Whether they will go beyond that figure depends, Lord Home hinted, upon relations with other producers, and he left no doubt that he would prefer a cartel to unbridled competition. Even in the stoppage of
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FINANCIAL NOTES
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work which developed on Tuesday at the Broken Hill Mines he finds some cause for consolation. For the past seven months lead-producers have been curtailing sales by to per cent., and have greatly strengthened the statistical position of the market. The stoppage will facilitate the sale of the metal which has been held off the market. With the present heavy consumption of lead, Lord Horne feels some doubt whether it will be necessary to continue the to per cent. cut.
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