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December, 1944

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We have received from Mr. W. C. Devereux, Chairman and Managing Director of High Duty Alloys Limited, of Slough, his scheme for providing full post-war employment in West Cumberland. This follows a scheme by Mr. Devereux put forward in 1943 and described in a pamphlet entitled "Post-war Reconstruction of Industry in South Wales." This scheme, says Mr. Devereux, "while accepted for its technical possibility did not get the support to take it to its economic conclusion."

In the years preceding the war both South Wales and West Cumberland were scheduled as Special Areas in the Special Areas Act of 1934, and both were areas in which very high percentages of unemployment prevailed. The West Cumberland scheme includes a report upon every industrial group in West Cumberland divided into two sections (1) based on natural resources and (2) not based primarily on natural resources.

In preparing his scheme Mr. Devereux has had local assistance from the Cumberland Development Council and also help from Messrs. O. M. Roskill, Industrial Consultants. The report on each industry deals with its prospects of maintenance, and possibilities of expansion and increase in efficiency after the war, and suggestions are made for the development of new industries on a scale considered suitable for the natural and other conditions existing in West Cumberland, and likely to absorb all the workers of the area which were unemployed prior to the war. The scheme, discussed in 112 pages of foolscap typescript, refers to about a score of industries varying in size and importance, ranging from coal and coke production to the, manufacture of surgical instruments. Most of the suggestions for improving existing industries and for establishing new industries seem reasonable, and given the will and an adequate provision of new capital, where this is necessary, the scheme or the major part of it should be feasible.

Existing industries

The principal existing industries include coal mining, coke manufacture, iron ore mining and production of iron and steel, miscellaneous mining and quarrying, production of bricks, cement and other building material, paper manufacture, flour milling, mineral water manufacture, woollen textiles and footwear manufacture, foundries and mechanical engineering works, drop forgings, electric-furnace steel production, electrical engineering and technical apparatus manufacture, and the making of surgical instruments. In most cases expansion is proposed with increase of the labour personnel. Suggestions for new industries considered suitable for West Cumberland are: production of crucible steel and engineering edge tools, manufacture of tissue paper, rayon staple fibre production, and the canning of meat and vegetables.

In 1937 the number of insured workers in West Cumberland was 36,870, including 9,180 persons employed in public works, contracting and in hotel, catering and distribution services. Under the proposed scheme it is estimated that employment would exist for 27,760 persons, of which 18,615 would be absorbed in industries and employments now existing, and that 9,145 would be employed in the proposed new industries. The following remarks are limited to the proposals for the coal mining and oven coke industries.

Coal

Mr. Devereux considers that coal and iron-ore mining will be, as now, the principal mining industries, but even if production is maintained at a relatively high level they will not employ more than about 7,900 workers. Coal mining after the war is expected to employ 5,450 persons, in 1939 it was 6,716 and in 1943, 5,570 (Special Digest from 1938). At present coal is obtained from about 1 6 pits operated by 9 companies. The rated capacity of these pits is over 2½ million tons per annum, with two million tons of saleable coal. But this total has not been reached since 1929. About 73 per cent, of the rated capacity is obtained from 7 pits operated by 4 companies, and it is thought that because of exhaustion of some of the older mines, postwar production will be concentrated mainly in 6 pits operated by 4 companies. Cumberland coals are high in volatiles and have good coking properties, but contain higher phosphorus and sulphur contents than the best coking coals from the Durham field. Inasmuch as the Cumberland ore consists of hematite iron low in phosphorus and sulphur, Cumberland coke must be used mixed with a Durham coke for blast furnace operation. For the production of about 600,000 tons of pig iron about 640,000 tons of coke are required. In 1937, with the blast furnaces in West Cumberland working to capacity, coke consumption amounted to 615,000 tons, of which the West Cumberland coke amounted to 418,057 tons.

Pre-war consumption of coal other than in the local coking industry was about 350,000 tons a year. Domestic consumption was probably about 160,000 tons, industrial consumption about 150,000 tons, and local gas works consumption about 50,000 tons. It is not expected that postwar domestic consumption will be much greater, but if the suggested expansion in local industries materialises, an increased coal consumption of at least 100,000 tons of coal per annum is estimated, making the annual requirement in industry 250,000 tons. Increased industrialisation in West Cumberland would also increase the demand for gas. In 1937 the ten gas works in the area produced 530 million cu. ft. of gas, but the post-war consumption may reach between 600 and 800 million cu. ft. involving an increased consumption of coal by the gas industry of 40,000 to 50,000 tons. This would mean an increase, in the local consumption of coal from 350,000 to 465,000 tons a year.

Export coal

Apart from coke production, the most important outlet for West Cumberland coal hitherto was for shipment. In 1932, nearly 500,000 tons were sold out of the area, but in 1936 only 180,000 were thus sold, due principally to the closing of two of the chief Whitehaven pits. Cumberland coals are not generally suitable for bunker purposes, and the area is less favourably situated than some others for exporting coal to the European Continent. On the other hand, it is well suited for shipments to Northern Ireland and Eire, and it is suggested that these markets could absorb about 400,000 tons a year of Cumberland coal after the war. On the whole it is estimated that the post-war demand for West Cumberland coal should be about 1½ million tons a year if the suggested higher requirements of the coking industry are fulfilled. Assuming this estimate of 1½ million tons to materialise, the underground employment in the coal mines would amount to about 4,200 workers and about 1,250 persons would be employed on the surface at the mines. Compared with the position immediately before the war, the coal output should be 10 to 15 per cent, greater with a 20 per cent. less labour force. As to the 1,000 to 1,500 persons formerly employed in the coal mining industry, the scheme provides for their absorption into other industries.

Coke

The normal capacity of the West Cumberland coking industry is 687,000 tons of coal yearly which should yield 490,000 tons of coke. The Workington Iron & Steel Company possesses 53 Becker ovens with a capacity of about 340,000 tons of coke annually; the Cumberland Coal Co. (Whitehaven) Ltd. possesses 69 Otto Ovens with a capacity of about 110,000 tons of coke per annum; the Allerdale Coal Co. Ltd. have 50 Koppee ovens with a capacity of 85,000 tons of coke per annum. The latter plant has been shut down since 1938, so that the present coking capacity is about 410,000 tons.

Assuming pig iron and ferro-alloy production to be maintained round 600,000 tons per annum, it is suggested that a modern coking plant be installed to replace the plant of the Cumberland Coal Co. (Whitehaven) Ltd. to enable the local iron blast furnace industry to utilise West Cumberland coke to the maximum degree possible, and also to ensure that coke was produced in highly efficient plants.

The usual by-products of the coking industry are cokeoven gas, benzole, tar and sulphate of ammonia. The existing capacity for 410,000 tons of coke annually would require the employment of about 310 persons, but with the suggested modem plants, with a capacity of 476,000 tons of coke, only about 250 persons.

The production of 470,000 tons of metallurgical coke would produce about 7,600 million cu. ft. of coke-oven gas. The present gas production is utilised locally for industrial and domestic fuel, but in prewar years a proportion was wasted.

By-products

After the removal of tar, benzole and ammonia, cokeoven gas contains about 6.5 per cent, of ethylene, about 41 per cent. of methane, 10 per cent. hydrogen, 18 per cent. carbon monoxide and the remainder is chiefly nitrogen and carbon dioxide. These substances can be separated by refrigeration; if say, 2,000 million cu. ft. of coke-oven gas were used in a local synthetic chemical industry, it would yield approximately 800 tons of ethylene, 11,200 tons of methane, 2,700 tons of hydrogen, and 5,000 tons of carbon monoxide. From these a wide range of chemical products could be made by processes at present in operation in the United States and Germany. Mr. Devereux states that it is fairly clear that any such developments in West Cumberland would depend upon coke-oven gas and water gas as raw materials and suggests that ethylene in conjunction with local benzine might be used to produce styrene, or that ethylene with chlorine be used to produce polyvinyl chloride (P.V.C.) and that from methane, formaldehyde, methanol, ethylene chloride, acetic acid, or acetylene, might be produced. From carbon and hydrogen methanol, or wax and oils, might be produced by a modified Fischer-Tropsch process.

Possible developments

With regard to the production of chemicals from coke-oven and gasworks by-products, Mr. Devereux does not recommend establishing a chemical industry in West Cumberland after the war, except so far as to provide some of the chemical materials required for the local major industries already established or proposed. For the textile industry sulphur compounds such as sodium bisulphite and sodium sulphide are used, and it is suggested that these might be made locally, while other chemicals would require to be brought in; this also applies to the tanning industry. The rayon industry requires sulphuric acid and carbon disulphide which can be produced locally. The post-war demand for spent oxide, tar and tar oils can also be supplied from the existing coke-oven plants and gas works as at present, but the demand is then likely to be considerably greater. Sulphuric acid is used locally to prepare phosphate fertilisers, the local demand for which is considered likely to be greater after the war. It is estimated that the number of employees in the production of sulphuric acid and carbon disulphide will be about 160. At present the by-products recovered from the coking plants include benzole, ammonia (as sulphate), tar oils, creosote, cresylic acid, pyridine, etc. The Workington Iron & Steel Company distils the tar from its coking plant, and formerly also treated the tar from the Allerdale Coal Company's plant, but the Cumberland Coal (Whitehaven) Company sells its crude tar to coal tar distillers and chemical works.

The industrial possibilities of coke-oven and gas works by-products in West Cumberland appear to be fairly fully exploited, and further developments in this direction are not included in recommendations for the post-war future.