The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-03-05
AMERICAN SHIPS ON WAYS REACH
 HIGHEST POINT
1, ,256,573 Tons of Shipping Now in Course of
 Construction.

New records of activity in ship building for private enterprises are being made by the shipyards of the United States, according to a state ment issued by the Atlantic Coast Shipbuilder's Association. Entirely exclusive of tonnage building for the Shipping Board, 263 steel vessels, ag- gregating 1,256,573 gross tons are in hand for business interests.
 Should the present rate of prog ress be maintained the 2,O00, ,000-ton mark should be passed by June. Only a few months remain until the gov ernment will have completed it's con- struction programme, and there is every evidence that the shipbui1ding plants, freed of government restric- tion, will be in a position to continue to meet whatever calls may be made upon them.
 The 1.250,0O0 gross tons of steel steamers now under construction compare with a total of only 148,515 tons of all types of vessels building of war. The present construction figure is equal to the entire American output of shipping for 1914, 1915 and 1916, combined, and 100000 above the production for 1917.
 This is equal to the British output for 1915 and 1916 together, about 100000 tons above the 1917 total, on- ly slightly under the British produc- tion for 1918 and equivalent to about 75 per cent of that TOT last year in the United Kingdom. It also ex- ceeds the entire worlds production of ships in 1915, and is greater than the entire seagoing tonnage of this country at the beginning of the war
 
 however, is that the volume of new orders continues to. replace the gaps made by the completion, cancella- tion and suspension of Shipping Board contracts.
 A feature of the present return is that it shows that tanker tonnage which month ago for the first time exceeded the volume of freighter ton- mage being built, has gone back to second place. There are now 62O,O0O gross tons of freighters building ill comparison with bSS,OOO tons of tankers.
 With the Shipping Board in possess sion of about 13,O00,0OO deadweight tons of vessels, the bulk of which is composed of cargo carriers, the sale is being urged on Congress, the in- crease in private orders for freight T 5 1S St1u lO De d femarka Die de- velopment. It is said to indicate that private enterprise, rather than take the chances of being able to supply it's needs by waiting to select from a comparatively few types of ready made ships, prefers to have modern ships built to it's own designs with the assurance that they will be con structed for the particular service to which they are to be put
 The faith of the American ship builder in his ability to find a market for his vessels is shown in the in- crease of freighter and tanker ton- l mage, totaling eigthy vessels of 371,. 248 tons, in comparison with forty of 174,158 tons under way for build. CTS account in January.
 With no marked Improvement in the foreign exchange situation, Amer ican yards are still practically en. l tirely dependent upon domestic or. ders. Only one new foreign contract was recorded during the past month a tanker for the Societe d'Arma- ment dIndustrie. How small a part this class of work is playing in Amer ican ship production is shown by the fact that of the 1,256,O00 gross tons building in this country only 15,OOO tons is to foreign order.
 Distribution of the work among the various shipyards is an encourag. ing feature of the returns. Another 1 increase in this respect is recorded 50 yards now being engaged in con struction for private account, as com pared with 43 in January, 3S in De- cember, 31 in November and 27 in October.
 In the volume of tonnage under
 way by the various shipbuildling companies the situation has developed into a close race between the Bethle. hem Shipbuilding Corporation and 1 the Federal Shipbuilding Company the Bethlehem concern having taken | the lead during the past month l Third and fourth places are held by the Sun Company and the Submarine Boat Corporation, respectively.