Two dangers in new union- management talks

No optimism for ICI jobs Pre-tax profits for the first six months of 1972 slumped to £56m from last year's £83m.

Sales rose to the record level of £829m—an increase over last year of £62m—but this was more than 1 offset by the inflation of production costs by f76m and a £13m rise in the depreciation of old plant.

The depressed profits epitomize the weakness of British capitalism with a trade war now engulfing all its markets.

Nixon's August 1971 measures effectively • excluded ICI from the lucrative US market in chairman Jack Callard: Producing where It's cheapest. plastics, artificial fibres and pharmaceuticals, while intense competition in textiles from lowpriced Japanese exports diverted to Europe and the UK forced polyester fibre prices down by 14 per cent.

Much • of ICI's production is geared to the textile industryfrom the basic constituents of dyes and artificial fibres to the finished articles. So they were substantially hard hit in this sector.

Substantial rationalization of the dyes, petrochemicals and artificial fibres divisions is reflected in the increased depreciation charges. It also led to 5,000 redundancies during 1971 and an Trade war hits markets BY OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT estimated higher figure for 1972. Despite this the wages bill rose by f35m over the 1970 However the biggest factor in increasing costs is the worldwide overcapacity in plastics and artificial-fibre manufacturing due to the slowdown in expansion of world trade.

More ruthless rationalization measures can be expected, therefore, especially in the Uk, where cost inflation has been highest in the chemical industry.

Left: One of the Alsatians being used to patrol a Coventry site following picketing by local builder!

on strike for the national demand. A UCATT official has labelled the guards a 'political police force' The volume of manufacturing in ICI's plants in Europe, Australia and the USA already threatens to outstrip UK production. Overseas sales, at £449m, are now larger than the UK market at £386m. £298m of the foreign sales were also produced abroad.

As ICI chairman Jack Callard commented at a staff conference in July, new Plant would go where the product can be made at minimum cost'.

With Britain entering the Common Market, he said, 'there will be increasing flexibility about where plants will be located.' ICI has been preparing for Market entry since 1960 when they formed ICI Europa in order to integrate manufacturing and sales operations based at plants in Holland and West Germany .. series_ which appeared now available as a pamphlet in Pocket Library.

WHY A LABOUR GOVERNMENT? A Reply to some centrist critics. Price 5p Aldington settlement.

The Port of London Authority, which has refused to comment on this development, has already reduced New Zealand meat charges by fl a ton, after negotiations with PLA staff to allow grade tallying of the meat to be carried out only by the over side tally clerks (OSTs).

In addition the PLA has spent £200,000 in the past two years improving berths and dockside facilities for the trade.

However, the leading light of the London meat trade, Lord Samuel Vestey, thinks that the PLA 'will have to do something about the rates' if any meat business is to remain in London.

Lord Vestey's family owns two of the main shipping lines in the New Zealand meat trade - the Blue Star and Port shipping lines —which will be involved in next week's discussions on a possible move to Sheerness.

THE MERSEY Docks and Harbour Company could be heading for a £2m loss this year after a profit of £1.8m in 1971.

The loss is expected to be forecast in the company's interim statement later in the month. A hint of the anticipated loss is contained in the latest edition of the 'Port of Liverpool News' which says that the dock strike cost the Authority f1.6m in lost revenue.

Trade, which is about 10 per cent down on last year, has been hit by a fall off in Irish Sea traffic and the building strike has held up the construction of the new £50m Seaforth dock.

The expected loss coincides with negotiations for the authority's take-over of the three stevedoring firms on Merseyside-A. E. Smith Coggins, the Port of Liverpool Stevedoring Company and Ocean Port Services-which employ at least 6,000 men.

It is thought that the government has been approached to help the company buy these concerns since they have very little spare cash to carry through the deal.