OVERSEAS TRADE IN BRITISH VEHICLES.
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Ireland One of Our Largest Buyers.
IT is to be regretted that the Board of Trade is not able to issue its annual statement of the foreign trade of the United Kingdom for 1924 until nearly the close of the following year, as the value of the detailed information it affords to manufacturers is largely ,discounted by the fact that the figures when isstecl are practically a year old. As, however, they afford the only official information of the kind, we have compiled from the statement the appended table, which shows the destination of complete commercial vehicles exported from the United Kingdom during 1924 and 1923 and gives numbers and values of the vehicles.
We have placed the markets in the order of their importance, as revealed by the figures for 1924, from which it will be seen that, whilst the Irish Free State heads the list as regards numbers of vehicles, India takes the leading place from the point of view of value of vehicles imported.
It may be useful to point out that the British commercial motor industry is, so far as its overseas trade is concerned, almost entirely dependent on British Possessions, which in 1924 were responsible for the absorption of 1,582 of the total of 1,747 vehicles exported and for £656,847 of the aggregate value of £789,816. In other words, over 80 per cent, of our trade is with British Colonies and less than 20 per cent, with foreign countries.
It should be pointed out that the table deals only with complete vehicles ; no information is available as regards our overseas trade in commercial chassis, these being included in the annual statement with car chassis.