British Engineering and the New Zealand Market, 1945-60
Britain's lack-lustre industrial performance after the Second World War is seen through the mirror of an important external market, New Zealand. The spotlight is on the failure of British exporters of diesel electric locomotives and heavy electrical plant to make the most of apparently excellent opportunities in New Zealand between 1945 and 1960. British firms occupied dominant positions in the relevant segments of the New Zealand market in the early post-war period, but frittered their advantage away. Development and production expertise was in limited supply, and was spread too thinly. Cartel pricing alienated public sector customers in New Zealand and encouraged them to give orders to other countries. While these are not novel charges to lay against British manufacturers, there is considerable value in having them confirmed by evidence from a peripheral market that has been relatively neglected by business historians.
Heavy Electrical Plant
In the 1950s, the UK industry — which included Metropolitan Vickers, British Thomson-Houston, English Electric, Brush, Parsons, Reyrolle, GEC, Ferranti, Crompton Parkinson, and Richardsons Westgarth — had a healthy flow of home orders and a large share of world trade in electrical generating plant and transmission equipment. The 1960s saw a large peak in home orders and a wave of takeovers that left GEC and Reyrolle Parsons as the only UK suppliers offering a full product range, including large steam-turbine generators, power transformers and switchgear. The 1970s have been a lean period for the UK industry, with few home orders and lingering uncertainty about the future. This chapter examines the industry’s recent performance and its prospects. First, we explain the technical and market framework in which it operates.
Mangone's concise marine almanac
Measurements of marine forms physical-political marine features naval forces merchant marines and ports fisheries marine and seabed minerals pollution of the marine environment.