196 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[March i, 1903. 



THE WORLD'S TRADE IN WASTE RUBBER. 



THE imports of India-rubber scrap into the United States, 

 first reported by the customs authorities for the fiscal 

 year 1890 91, amounted in that period to only 488,163 

 pounds, of the average import value of 3.9 cents. One 

 half of this amount was credited to Great Britain, another third 

 to Germany and Canada, and the small remainder to various 

 countries. During the fiscal year 1901-02 the imports of this ma- 

 terial reached the enormous total of 22,894.900 pounds, of the 

 average import value of 62 cents, or a total value of $1,437,960. 

 For the numerous sources of this large quantity, and the 

 yearly development of the supplies from each country, refer- 

 ence is made to the table at the foot of this page. The re- 

 ceipts from Germany alone, it will be seen, amounted to 8,- 

 716,907 pounds, and from the Russias practically as much. 

 Nearly 3,000,000 pounds arrived from Canada, and over 1,000,- 

 000 pounds from Great Britain. 



These figures are of interest, in the first place, as indicating 

 the important place which the use of reclaimed rubber has 

 gained in the rubber manufacture, for all this waste is, of 

 course, imported into the United States to be converted into 

 new raw material, to be distributed again to all countries 

 where the rubber industry exists. Not only is the quantity 

 above stated to be taken into account, but the collections of 

 waste rubber in the United States, which, being the largest 

 consumer of rubber goods of any country in the world, sup- 

 plies larger quantities of waste than any other. It is possible, 

 indeed, that the amount of waste rubber collected in this 

 country in the year 1901 02 was sufiicient, added to 22,000,000 

 pounds of imports, to make a total of 100,000,000 pounds. 

 Supposing the whole to have yielded 80 per cent., by weight, 

 of reclaimed rubber, the total produced would have been 80,- 

 000,000 pounds. These figures may be too large, but there is 

 further to be considered the use of recovered or devulcan- 

 ized rubber in not a few European factories, prepared in their 

 own plants, from waste materials which do not appear in the 

 above estimates. The amount of reclaimed rubber used, in 

 view of all these facts, must be within 20 per cent, as great as 

 that of all the new rubber, of whatever grade, consumed. 



But these figures have another bearing. Nearly 20,000,000 

 pounds of the waste rubber imported into the United States last 

 year was derived from Europe, and figured in the official state- 

 ments of the India-rubber movement of various European 

 countries, no separate classification of rubber waste yet having 

 been adopted by them. So long as this confusing element ex- 

 ists in their rubber statistics, it will be impossible to deter- 

 mine how much crude rubber actually is imported and exported. 

 Undoubtedly, however, the rubber movement in most of the 

 countries referred to is overstated, to the extent that rubber 

 waste is included in the customs returns. 



For example, the British import returns long have embraced 

 " Caoutchouc " from Russia, though it is well known that Eng- 

 land does not receive any crude rubber from that country. 

 Such imports credited to Russia in the latest British returns 

 have been as follows : 



1897. 1S98. 1899. 1900. 1901, 



Pjundi qSS,5t2 2, 311, 120 2.196,992 4,260,928 4,150,160 



All of these amounts are clearly old "galoches " and were 

 they entered as such, the result would be a material modifica- 

 tion of the returns of the crude rubber movement in England. 

 A like condition exists with reference to German statistics of 

 rubber imports. In the latter country crude rubber is reported 

 to have been received, not only from Russia, but from several 

 other European countries, not one of which is likely to be an 

 exporter of this material, as follows: 



From — ■ 1899- 1900. 



Russia pounds -j.itii,iba 4,061,420 



Finland SS.ooo 



Denmark 64,240 



Norway 130,020 



Sweden 439,780 



Austria- Hungary 118,800 



Turkey 1 74 ,020 



Roumania 



Switzerland 



255,420 

 134,860 

 396,440 

 843,260 

 189.860 

 240.900 



IQDI. 

 4.325,200 

 302,500 

 125,180 

 198,220 

 863,940 



I ig,02o 



186,340 



55.440 



129,360 



1Q02. 



4.309,140 



253,660 



186,560 



77,220 



1,217.920 



500,720 



144,760 



75,240 



143,660 



Total 8,249,120 6,122,160 6,305,200 6,908,880 



Some scrap must have imported also, from Great Britain. 

 Next will be given a comparison of the German official re- 

 turns of India-rubber exported to the United States during 



Imports of Scrap Rubber into the United States— Fiscal Years Ending June 30. 



Countries. 



Austria- Hungary , . . .pounds 



Belgium 



Denmark 



France 



Germany 



Netherlands 



Portugal 



Russia — Baltic 



Russia — Black sea 



Spain 



Sweden-Norway 



Turkey in Europe 



United Kingdom 



British North America 



West Indies 



South America 



British East Indies 



Other countries 



Total pounds 



Import Value 



Average per pound. . . 



189 J. 



24,238 



24,610 



104,653 



22,000 



65,233 



117,929 



548,067 



3,813 



1894. 



910,543 



$25,633 

 2 8 cts. 



'89s 



68.211 



10,675 

 131,621 



188,997 



664,498 



2,359 



1,774,008 

 $55,803 



31 cts. 



3,916 

 52,053 



52,oJ5 

 742,259 



65,954 

 65.407 



15.540 



67.405 



254.489 



583.871 



115 987 



I ',637 



1896. 



2,032,563 

 $63,1 12 

 31 cts. 



12,229 



46,628 



42,868 



1,910,033 



398,321 



51.437 

 340,439 

 659,830 



409,752 

 3,140 



3.874 677 

 $123,068 

 3.2<r/j. 



1897. 



1898. 



16,928 



15.424 

 41,264 



,291.353 



563.998 

 300,815 



18,178 



593.798 



398,913 



19.736 



389.238 

 4,300 



3.653.945 

 .$113,722 

 31 cts 



74.683 



129,811 



84,769 



2,857,606 



1,582,862 

 132,190 



n,26- 



50,988 



269,652 



2,051,617 



79.535 



2,140,358 



19.972 



9.488,327 

 $339,374 

 3 6 cts. 



1899 



196,760 



90,075 



64,782 



3,560,065 



2,993,763 

 329,495 



33.800 



115,143 



426,790 



2,675.147 

 4,220 



23.534 



10,513.604 

 $462,044 

 4.4 cts. 



1900. 



300,419 



7.273 



190,901 



9,810,311 



3.955,387 

 1.092,129 



95,175 



123,866 



1,006,513 



2,497,908 



1,050 



300 



12.315 



19,093,547 



$1,249,231 



6 5 cts. 



1901. 



32,080 

 264,700 



54,970 



225,792 



5,797.120 



2 



4,886 



1,326 



4 



251 



83 



996 



1,299 



6 



530 

 460 



.305 



,300 

 940 

 498 



.484 

 270 



,925 



2.856 



15,235,236 

 .$988,316 

 6.5 cts. 



1902 



399.630 



316,281 



8,716,907 



111,315 



5,122,607 

 3.413,630 



363.448 



243.352 



1,089,082 



2,989,683 



26,988 



1.977 



22,894 900 



I". 437.960 



6.2 cts. 



