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in other countries, such as the Allmdnna Svenska, have established manufacturing
subsidiaries or linked up with Italian producers for the exploitation of certain
patent rights.
In Austria four firms supply the market—the Osterreich-Siemens-Schuckert,
which is responsible for about 40 per cent. of the national production, the A.E.G.
Union, the Osterreichische Brown-Boveri, and a purely Austrian company, the
Elin, which has specialized in transformers and switchgear. All four companies
have worked in close co-operation in dealing with the important contracts placed
by the State in connection with its main-line electrification plans, and, in general,
their model in organization and price-fixing has been Germany. As in Switzer-
land, main-line electrification has saved the industry from collapse during the
last four years, with the result that the manufacturers are now in a fairly strong
position. It is already clear, however, that the future of the industry depends
on its capacity to develop a strong export trade, and financial developments will
make this a matter of some difficulty.
In Hungary the Ganz Electrical Company has been fighting a stiff battle
against financial interests which have narrowed down the home demand, especi-
ally in Budapest, and forced Hungary to import a high percentage of require-
ments, against political factors which have cut down the area it once supplied
and, through the imposition of high tariffs, kept it out of the lost territory, and
against technical difficulties inseparable from the fact that the only experience
available to the firm in many products has had to be found in export markets.
Tt has been carrying out persistent propaganda in connection with the introduc-
tion of main-line electrification into Hungary, since it has specialized to some
extent in electric traction and has supplied electric locomotives to the French
railways, but financial considerations have ruled out such a possibility meantime.
In Czecho-Slovakia the Skoda works, controlled by Schneider et Cie., have
launched out into electrical manufacture on a large scale, especially turbo-
generating plant and electric traction material, and have secured important
orders in connection with suburban electrification in Prague, while the Erste
Briinner Dampf-Maschinenfabrik has constantly lost ground financially during
the last two years, heavy losses having been incurred in connection with new
turbine developments. Depression in industry generally has contributed also
to a difficult situation, since the output of the firm mostly went to iron and steel
and coal-mining firms, sugar factories and glass-works. It is doubtful now
whether the service of the American loan of 3,500,000 dollars raised in 1925 to
restore financial stability will be met in the current year.
In Sweden, one firm, the Allminna Svenska, is responsible for almost 60
per cent. of the national output of electrical machinery and apparatus, and the
progress of this firm may be considered as decisive for electrical manufacture in
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