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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0164.PDF
TOTAL VALUE OFUK AERO AERO EXPORTS AS %OF ENGINEERING EXPORTS AERO EXPORTSAS °/o OF TOTAL UK EXPORTS 1947 172 FLIGHT, 7 February 1958 51 53 55 57 Post-war Kingdom related growth of United aviation exports to total exports. WHEN the value of United Kingdom aeronautical exportsexceeded £100m in 1956, observers speculated whetherthis was a flash in the foreign-trade pan. In April 1957, when the figures for the first quarter showed a sharp fall fromthe previous year's level, their doubts seemed well founded—and further justified in October by a nine-month total still below the1956 figure. But a last-minute spurt saw.exports in the final quarter climb to a record £38m, carrying the 1957 total to £116m. Best month of all was December, with exports at £17.5m,of which aircraft and spares contributed £ 12.6m and aero-engines £4.4m. (Each of these figures are records for any month.) Table 1,showing the principal countries to which our exports were directed, reveals how these records were achieved. India alone purchasedin December almost £5m worth of aircraft, primarily Hunters, Canberras and Viscounts, and probably between one and twomillion pounds' worth of engines and equipment. December also saw Viscounts delivered to the Netherlands, and Britannias toIsrael and Mexico. The main credit for the 1957 records must go to engine manu-facturers. Rolls-Royce exports jumped by £8m from £21m in 1956 to £29m in 1957. The increase in export value of all aero-engines from £28m to £41m shows that other engine manufac- turers increased their exports by about £5m. As a result of falling defence demands, the total export value ofmilitary aircraft dropped last year. At the same time, civil exports rose to over £50m, despite a slight fall in Vickers Viscount foreignsales from £29m to £27m. Manufacturers of components and accessories also broke allrecords, with exports of electrical equipment and of instruments for the first time reaching £3m and £2m respectively, and despatchof tyres approaching £lm. Distribution of exports over various regions and countriesappears to follow no regular pattern. The British Commonwealth tends to receive about one-third of U.K. exports, with Australiaand Canada being the leading regular customers. Prospects of European economic integration give added significance to thatregion's aeronautical imports from Great Britain. These fell from 1952 to 1955 (value of complete aircraft dropping from £15m to£10m) but have subsequently been rising steadily, last year show- ing the value of aircraft and parts to have reached £20m. Despitethe growth of their own aircraft industries, the Netherlands, Sweden, France and Belgium continue to be our major Europeancustomers. Only in recent years has the United States become a Britain's Aircraft Exports CAN THE RECORD HIGH LEVEL OF 1*57 BE MAINTAINED? leading importer of British aeronautical products. Althoughexports to the U.S. in 1958 are unlikely to reach the record £20rn attained in 1956 (by reason of Capital Airlines' Viscounts), thisyear's figure should be over £10rn, with planned deliveries including 15 Viscount 812s to Continental Air Lines and fiveBritannia 305s to Northeast Airlines. Comparing the U.K. aviation industry with that of the U.S.,total British exports are between one-third and one-quarter of U.S. exports, a proportion in line with total employment in eachcountry's aircraft industry. Britain, however, exports a much higher proportion of its total aircraft output. (Precise figures arenot yet available, but whereas the U.S. industry normally exports about one-eighth, here the proportion is almost one-quarter.) Aeronautical products form a growing proportion of total Britishexports. This trend is typical of British engineering products generally, the value of these items having increased from one-thirdof total exports immediately after the war to two-fifths at present. Aero exports constituted less than 2 per cent of total U.K. exportsuntil 1952, but in the last two years have exceeded 3 per cent. Related to total engineering exports, the value of aero exports hasincreased from 5 per cent prior to 1953 to over 8 per cent today. Statistics describing Britain's foreign trade in aircraft oftenignore the import side of the picture. Total aero imports are normally between one-third and one-quarter of comparableexports, and fluctuate around £25m per annum. Purchase of American aircraft by B.O.A.C. is a large item, the most recentsuch import having been ten DC-7Cs and spares valued at £10m; and an impending instance will be the importation of 15 Boeing707s in 1961 at a dollar cost equivalent to £44m. TABLE II: ANNUAL VALUE OF U.K. AERO EXPORTS AND IMPORTS, 1952-1957 (£ X MILLION) Exports:— Aircraft and parts Engines Electrical equipment Instruments Tyres Total exports Imports:— Aircraft Engines Electrical equipment Tyres Total imports Imports re-exported:— Aircraft ... Engines Total re-exports • 1952 35.3 8.7 1.5* 0.7 0.5 46.7 8.3 3.9 12.2 0.9 1.3 2.2 1953 42.3 20.3 1.9 1.2 0.4 66.1 41.5 6.0 0.3 47.8 0.9 1.9 2.8 1954 31.4 20.9 2.1 1.2 0.6 56.2 15.6 6.4 0.8 0.1 22.9 0.7 1.4 2.1 1955 39.7 22.3 2.3 1.4 0.6 66.3 13.6 7.7 1.0 0.1 22.4 2.4 1.5 3.9 1956 71.8 28.0 2.7 1.4 0.7 104.6 12.7 10.6 1.3* 0.1 24.7 N.A. 3.4 N.A. 1957 69.8 40.6 3.3 2.0 0.8 116.5 11.8 13.2 1.5* 0.1 26.6 N.A.4.4 N.A. TABLE I: EXPORT OF AIRCRAFT AND PARTS Commonwealth:—• Australia Canada ... India New Zealand . Pakistan Rhodesia South Africa Others ... United States:— Europe:— Belgium... France ... Netherlands Norway SwedenWest Germany Middle Easts- Egypt IraqIsrael Lebanon Elsewhere:— Brazil Burma ... ... Total Commonwealth Total Foreign Total all countries Annual 1955 2.3 5.2 1.2 0.9 1.7 1.1 1.1 2.3 3.0 2.2 2.6 2.6 0.1 1.80.3 2.0 1.60.4 1.8 0.1 0.5 15.8 23.8 39.6 ralue (£ X 1956 11.01.9 1.2 1.3 0.5 1.9 0.2 1.4 17.2 2.9 3.12.4 0.2 7.80.3 1.3 0.40.2 0.4 0.1 19.4 52.4 71.8 TO COUNTRIES, 1955-1957 million) 1957 2.93.9 11.0 0.9 0.2 0.2 0.4 3.1 5.1 1.4 3.16.0 0.9 5.6 1.9 — 0.9 3.0 2.5 0.6 1.1 22.6 47.2 69.8 Value (£ X 1,000) December 1957 192 854 4,791 73 5 11 42 697 240 51 203 1,486 2 58332 3 14986 348 22 37 6,665 5,966 12,631 •Estimated. A noticeable feature of aero imports is the high value of enginesin relation to complete aircraft. Indeed, in 1957 engines were the largest single category of aero imports, amounting to over £13m.Leading foreign suppliers of engines in the past have been the United States, France and Sweden. The value of engine importsruns at about one-third of that for engine exports. With Canada as the main supplier, electrical equipment is now the fastest-grow-ing item of Britain's aero-imports and is now valued at about one-half the value of electrical equipment exported from the U.K. Aviation imports include an unknown proportion of militaryequipment brought into this country under schemes such as the Mutual Defense Assistance Program. This explains the high 1953import figure, £36m of which represents the arrival of about 37O: Avro Canada Sabres, Much of this imported equipment is sub-sequently shipped abroad and so constitutes a major portion of what are officially known as re-exported aeronautical imports.Although figures for aero-engines in this category have been pub- lished, those for aircraft in the last two years are still suppressed. Despite the hopes expressed by spokesmen of the British industry(and a cautious optimism is no bad thing), it will be surprising if the 1957 level of exports can be maintained over the next few years.Vickers and Rolls-Royce together will be hard-pressed to achieve exports of £70m in this year and in 1959; and it is difficult to seeother civil aeronautical exports in each year reaching £20m and' £25m. An appraisal of civil exports between now and 1960suggests that, unless military exports average £25m p.a., there is little likelihood of last year's record being broken in theimmediate future unless fresh orders follow the recently announced' Swiss purchase of 100 Hawker Hunters for £I5m.. J. C. S.
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