The Salt Works, page 2

As previously mentioned, the oldest of the salt works was the Aden Salt Works. The next oldest company was the Indo-Aden Salt Manufacturing & Trading Co Ltd, which in November 1908 was granted a 30 year lease on 907 acres. The Indo-Aden had to pay the same royalties (as did all the companies), but from the outset there was an annual rental of 7,000 Rupees.

At the renewal of the lease in 1938 the same surcharge was applied for exports over 55,000 tons, but with an accounting year starting in November.

 
Bagging the salt was one answer to the problem of how to load the salt on board ship.

The third company was the United Salt Works & Industries Ltd. This was an amalgamation of the Hajeebhoy Aden Salt Works Ltd and the Kutch Salt Works, the former having taken over the latter in 1941, which is when the name of the company was changed. The Hajeebhoy had taken out a 30 year lease in July 1922 on 860 acres, with a further lease on 86 acres in May 1928.

Their rental was 8,000 Rupees on the first lease and 770 on the second. When the first lease was renewed in 1952 the United Salt Works would become liable to the same surcharge on annual exports as those paid by the other two companies mentioned above. On the renewal date United was also hoping to negotiate a lease of an additional 289 acres.

Salt being put on a conveyor belt to be loaded into a barge – note the pile of salt already in the barge..

The youngest of the four companies was the Little Aden Salt Industries Co Ltd. Their 30-year lease on 1600 acres at Bureika was from May 1923, for which the rental was 7,000 Rupees a year. At the renewal of their lease the Little Aden Salt Works would also became liable for the surcharge. They also were hoping to expand by taking out a lease on an additional 252 acres. In 1959 the business was being managed by Mr. H.N. Pandya.  

When the salt monopoly ended in Ethiopia in May 1941 it provided an opportunity for Antonin Besse. He shipped some salt from Aden in his own dhows but later most of the salt came from African deposits. Besse had considered buying the Aden Salt Works but he decided not to proceed. The Table below shows the exports in tons of the four companies for the four years 1947-1950, the figures having been rounded down to the nearest 1000 tons. Most of the salt exported was being shipped to India.

 

Company	1947	1948	1949	1950
Aden Salt Works	136,000	82,000	100,000	55,000
Indo-Aden Salt Manufacturing	29,000	69,000	58,000	69,000
United Salt Works	52,000	56,000	55,000	72,000
Little Aden Salt Industries	102,000	53,000	28,000	54,000
Totals	319,000	260,000	241,000	250,000

The two tables below show the total tonnage of salt exported from 1953 to 1956 and the export destination.

Year	Production (tons)	Exports (tons)
1953	241,400	165,600
1954	210,400	193,700
1955	274,300	243,800
1956	248,000	217,000

 

Destination of Exports
Year	Japan	East Africa	Others	Total
1953	146,700	15,900	3,000	165,600
1954	173,700	12,300	7,700	193,700
1955	219,900	9,600	14,300	243,800
1956	193,200	19,800	4,000	217,000

 

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