CEMENT INDUSTRY'S PROBLEMS
Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers last year delivered a record tonnage of " Blue Circle " cement. But the financial result of the year was a decline of £191,099 in the net profit—a fall which Sir P. Malcolm Stewart ex- plained at Wednesday's meeting was largely due to taxation and a reduction from 20 per cent.'to 15 per cent. in the dividend. The future, as Sir Malcolm sees it, is less bright. Owing to abnormal weather conditions the results of the first two months of this year were, he said, exceptionally poor. Now demand is improving but it is almost wholly dependent on the Government, on A.R.P., and on export. The volume of orders from those three sources was uncertain and he felt bound to warn shareholders that they could not, in war conditions, expect a repetition of the results achieved last year.
Notwithstanding that warning as to future financial results. Sir Malcolm Stewart found much that was deserving of favourable comment in the cement position. The company
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FINANCE AND INVESTMENT
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is, he pointed out, in a sound position to face difficult trading conditions, and the industry was found well prepared for the war owing to the efficiency of its organisation in the Cement Makers' Federation. The War Executive of the Federation is entrusted by the Minister of Supply with the responsibility of carrying on negotiations with the Ministry on matters affecting the industry. The Minister, he said, had found it at present unnecessary to appoint a controller.
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