Decemuer I, 1904.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



83 



SOME RUBBER INTERESTS IN EUROPE. 



REPORT or THE HARBURG-VIHNNA COMPANY. 



THE report of the Actiengesellschaft Vereinigte Gummi- 

 waaren-Fabriken Harburg-Wien, presented at the re- 

 cent general meeting at Harburg a/d Elbe, Germany, 

 related to the thirty-second business year of the com- 

 pany, ending June 30, 1904. The report, after presenting sta- 

 tistics of the world's production and consumption of crude rub- 

 ber, proceeds to say : 



The figures given above show that the consumption is continually in- 

 creasing, and that lower prices can only be counted on should the supply 

 very materially increase. It is highly satisfactory to learn from our col 

 onies, and especially from Kamerun, that the planting of Caoutchouc 

 trees is being encouraged, and that measures are being taken to decrease 

 the destruction of the trees for the sake of increased profits. In the 

 countries of origin from which we have hitherto received our supplies 

 everything possible is being done to increase the production by increas- 

 ing the facilities for gathering and by improving the roads, so as to fa- 

 cilitate transportation from the forests to the central depots. We hope 

 these efforts may tend to increase the supply during the next few years. 



The considerable increase in the cost of crude rubber and of other 

 materials used in our manufactures, amounting to about 2,000,000 

 marks [=|l476,oooj, has naturally resulted in decreasing the percentage 

 of our profits in comparison with that of the last two years, while we 

 have, moreover, been compelled to adapt our selling prices to those of 

 our competitors, in order not to lose our customers. We are, however, 

 strongly convinced that the results shown during the last two years will 

 be even more strongly accentuated during the current year, which, taken 

 in conjunction with the downfall of Austrian and German rubber works, 

 will finally cause those interested in rubber industries to open their eyes 

 and give attention to the disaster that must surely follow if selling at a 

 loss is continued much longer. We are likewise convinced that the 

 time is coming when the attempts to bring all the manufacturers under a 

 mutual understanding, but which have hitherto been unsuccessful, will at 

 last take definite shape. 



All our works are well supplied with orders, and we hope to be gradu- 

 ally able to fi.\ our selling prices in accordance with prevailing condi- 

 tions. 



The gross profits of the goods account amount to .1/2,729,- 

 948.29 [=$649,727.69], against Af 3,374,100.67 of the preceding 

 year, and .1/ 4,01 5,875.07 in the year 1901 02. The net profit 

 for the last business year amounted to Af 830,301.45 [=$197,- 

 611.75], against M 1,460,070.45 last year, and was disposed of as 

 follows : 



Net Profit for the year J/ 830,301.45 



Dividend 5 per cent, on the entire Capital 300,000 00 



jJ/ 530,301,45 

 Less 10 per cent. Commission to the Directors 53,030.15 



jl/477.271.30 

 Add Balance from profits of 1902-03 204,207.06 



.1/681,478.36 

 Dividend 7;^ per cent, on the entire Capital 450,000.00 



.1/231.478.36 

 Less Officers' Pension Funds 50,000,00 



Balance to 1904-05 Af 181,207.06 



The capital of the company remains at i1/ 6,000,000 [=$i, 



428,000], and the reserves at the former large figures. 



In relation to a new material in which the company have 



taken a lively interest the Harburg- VVien report says: 



Galalith. — We have, since the commencement of the current year, 



been engaged in regular manufacture in our newly erected plant. Sales 



are already showing a substantial increase, which makes us confidently 



hope for a future favorable development of this branch. It is to be re- 

 gretted that we cannot obtain the raw material in our country as cheaply 

 as from foreign countries, and we are therefore forced to import our 

 supply. It is also to be regretted that the new tarilT requires a duty of 

 10 marks to be paid per 100 kilos of the raw material [=$23.80 per 

 ton], and we fear we shall severely suffer thereby as soon as the patents 

 shall have run out and when the Galalith manufactured in foreign coun- 

 tries shall commence to be imported into (Germany, since the new tariff 

 calls for a duty of only 3 marks per 100 kilos [=$7. 14 per ton] on Gala- 

 lith plates. If we are not successful in having this abnormal rate set 

 aside, we shall be compelled to remove our works to some foreign 

 country. 



RUBBER GOODS AT THE NIJNI-NOVGOROD FAIR. 



RlTBBER goods are offered in increasing quantities at the an- 

 nual fairs (the largest in the world) held at Nijni-Novgorod, 

 the capital of the government of the same name, situated at 

 the junction of the Oka and Volga rivers, in central [<ussia. 

 This fair is attended sometimes by from 200,000 to 300,000 

 merchants, from Russia and western and central Asia, and has 

 become an important distributing point for manufactured goods 

 of many kinds. A note in the GummiZeilun^ mentions that 

 at the last fair, held in August and September, the rubber 

 goods shown were of the value of more than 2,500.000 rubels 

 [=$1,287,500]. The goods included mechanical and surgical 

 articles, boots and shoes, and waterproof clothing, and met a 

 ready sale. The quotations for footwear, owing to the ad- 

 vanced cost of raw rubber, had been advanced at the fair at 

 Moscow, held previously, by 12^ per cent., and these prices 

 were in effect at Nijni-Novgorod. Shoes are sold at list prices 

 with a discount of from 31 to 40 per cent., and the other goods 

 at discounts at from 20 to 25 per cent. The principal pur- 

 chases of rubber goods of all kinds were for western Siberia, 

 the regions of the Volga and Kama, and Caucasia. Rubber 

 goods are mentioned as having been in good demand at Mos- 

 cow before the fair, occasioned by large purchases for army 

 purposes. 



THE GRAMMONT FACTORIES, IN FRANCE. 



The exhibit in the Electricity building, at the St. Louis Ex- 

 position, of the long established French house, ICtablissements 

 Industriels E. C. Grammont — A. Grammont, Successeur, has 

 been mentioned briefly in The India Rubber World hereto- 

 fore. In 1852 the late E. C. Grammont began at Pont-de- 

 Cheruy the manufacture of steel wires, for small industrial 

 uses, to which he later added copper working, so that he was 

 prepared, at the first inception of the modern development of 

 the electrical industries, to take on the production of wires and 

 cables for use in the new field. In 1891 the house manufac- 

 tured and laid down for the government a cable of 510 nautical 

 miles, between Marseilles and Algiers, this being the first 

 French made submarine cable. Since that time a number of 

 other contracts of importance have been executed, or are in 

 progress, including the Mozambique-Majunga cable (in 1895). 

 of 372 nautical miles. The construction of electrical machines 

 was taken on in time, and contracting for electric installations, 

 including street railways and lighting plants in a number of 

 French cities. In addition to various articles of hard and soft 

 rubber incidental to their electrical work, the house of Gram- 

 mont now manufacture pneumatic tires and general rubber 

 goods, of which specimens were shown at St. Louis. The 

 original works at Pont-de-Cheruy are still maintained, to- 

 gether with works at Plaine-Chavanoz, tor electric plant, and 



