March i, 1903.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



211 



REVIEW OF THE CRUDE RUBBER MARKET. 



DURING February the market for Para sorts advanced, 

 with the rfesult of regaining in large part the decline 

 experienced in January, though the same is not true 

 of Africans and Centrals, some grades of which are 

 quoted at this date lower than one month ago. The market 

 continues in a state of uncertainty, with prices still below what 

 the statistical situation might be thought to justify, and while 

 deliveries in the aggregate are considerable, consumers have 

 not been buying with the freedom that characterized the mar- 

 ket during the closing months of 1902. This is no indication 

 of inactivity in the industry, however. The weather has been 

 une.xceptionally favorable for the sale of rubber footwear, and 

 the factories in that branch not only have been busier than for 

 many winters, but they still have large orders ahead. Every 

 other branch of rubber manufacture is similarly active. New 

 factories have been getting to work, and additions made to old 

 ones, at a rate which has taxed the capacity of makers of rub- 

 ber machinery, with the result that second hand machinery 

 has been in such demand as practically to exhaust the supply. 

 There are practically no factories standing closed. But manu- 

 facturers are not buying more rubber than they are compelled 

 to. 



The market has been unsettled slightly by the reported em- 

 barrassment of a Liverpool firm of rubber merchants. Their 

 trouble, however, has not been due to an oversupply of rubber, 

 with a falling market, as was true of a notable failure in New 

 York last year, but to selling rubber which they did not hold, 

 and an advance in the market beyond their selling prices. 



The disturbances in the Acre territory are to be settled by 

 negotiations between Bolivia and Brazil, which will remove an 

 obstacle to gathering rubber in that important district, but the 

 eflect cannot be an early increase in supplies. Not only has 

 navigation been checked on the Acre, but the rubber gatherers 

 were under arms at a time when, otherwise, they would have 

 been gathering rubber. 



There have been reported large arrivals of rubber at Manaos, 

 however, from other upriver districts, and receipts at Para dur- 

 ing February were in excess of those for the same month last 

 year — all of which gives the hope that, through some chance, 

 the total output for the crop season may not be so much short- 

 er than last year as the returns for several months indicated. 

 The Para receipts from July i to the following February 28 

 (eight months) in each of two years past, and to February 26 in 

 the present year, have been as follows : 



igoo-oi. 



Rubber tons 15,863 



Caucho 1,167 



1901-02. 



18,839 



i,6g6 



1902-03 . 



17.451 

 1.524 



Total ions 17,030 20,535 18,975 



These figures include 3605 tons of rubber to February 26, 



against 3075 for the whole of February last year, 'and 600 



tons of Caucho against 315 tons last year. 

 New York quotations on February 27 were : 



PARA. 



Islands, fine, new 84 @85 



Islands, fine, old 90 ©91 



Upriver, fine, new 89 @90 



Upriver, fine, old 94 (0)95 



Islands, coarse, new. . . 52 @53 



Islands, coarse, old. . . @ 



Upriver, coarse, new. .72 (373 



Upriver, coarse, old. . . @ 



Caucho(Peruvian)sheet 53 @54 



Caucho (Peruvian) ball 65 @66 



AFRICAN. 



SierraLeone, istquality77 $878 



Massai. red 77 @7S 



Benguella 64 @65 



Cameroon ball 60 @6i 



Gaboon flake 35 @36 



Gaboon lump 37 (0138 



Niger paste 20 @2r 



Accra flske 20 @2i 



Accra buttons 58 



Accra strips 59 



Lopori ball, prime .... 78 

 Lopori strip, do .... 76 



Ikelemba 80 



Madagascar, pinky. ...77 

 EAST INDIAN. 



Assam 



Borneo 38 



@59 



C?6o 



@7Q 

 @77 

 (SSi 

 @78 



J52 



Mexican, slab 54 @55 



Mangabeira, sheet. . . .49 ©50 

 GUTTA-PERCHA. 



Prime, red (Al 25 



Prime, white @i 50 



Lower grades .. ;S 1^1.25 



Reboiled, prime 75 @ .90 



Reboiled, inferior 10 @ .25 



Balata, sheet 63 



Balata, block 52 



Pontianak (in quanti 



ties) 



Almeidina 



Tuno gum 



Chicle 



CENTRALS. 

 Esmeralda, sausage. . .66 (§67 



Guayaquil, strip 59 @6o 



Nicaragua, scrap ... .65 @66 



Panama, slab 54 @55 



Mexican, scrap 65 @66 



Late Para cables quote : 



Per Kilo. 



Islands, fine 5$650 



Islands, coarse 2$S50 



Exchange, 

 Last Manaos advices: 

 Upriver, fine. .......... 6$2oo 



Exchange, \\\\ci 



Statistics of Para 'T^ubber {Excluding Caucho) . 



@65 

 @55 



@ iVi 

 @ 8 

 (Si 12 

 @42 



Per Kilo. 

 . fiasco 

 . 4-'jiEoo 



Upriver. fine. . . 

 Upriver, coarse. 

 Il||,/. 



Upriver, coarse 4$300 



Stocks, January i tons 67 



Arrivals, January 1071 



NEW YORK. 

 Fine and 

 Medium. Coarse. 



5 = 

 553 = 



Total 

 1 003. 



72 

 1624 



Aggregating . . . 

 Deliveries, January. 



Stocks, January 31 .. 



1138 

 915 



223 



558 = 1696 

 528 = 1443 



30 



253 



Total 



IQO'2. 



1139 

 1330 



2469 

 II30 



1339 



Tola 

 1901 



658 

 1094 



1752 

 I 100 



652 



PARA. 



IQ03, lgo2. 1901. 



Stocks. Jan. \....tons 365 150 660 



Arrivals, January 2500 3825 2445 



ENGLAND. 



1903 1902. IQCI. 



885 1299 780 



1 1 90 1 1 56 II 95 



Aggregating 28D5 3975 3105 



Deliveries, January. , . 2710 3465 2390 



2075 

 1025 



2455 



1225 



1975 

 gco 



Stocks, Jan. 31 . .. 155 510 



7'5 



1050 1230 



1075 



tgoi. 

 3676 



13,735 



374 

 860 



1903. 1902. 



World's supply, January 31 iotis 2783 5329 



Para receipts, July i to January 31 '3,846 16,079) 



Para receipts of Caucho, same dates 924 1381 f 



Afloat from Para to United States, Jan. 31. . 740 930 



Afloat from Para to Europe, January 31 585 1320 



Para. 



Kanthack & Co. report [February 4] : 



The tone of the market having lately given way to depression, a pro- 

 nounced relapse has taken place, caused as much by the downward 

 movement at the consuming centers as by the increasing receipts at 

 Manaos. As these receipts, however, are not likely to go on increasing 

 to the extent of last crop, if for no other reason than the shrinkage from 

 the Acre district, the present state is regarded as a passing phase, to be 

 followed by a revival of demand and an improvement in values. The 

 Bolivian Acre affair is assuming a rather gloomy and perilous aspect, 

 since the decision of the Brazilian government to despatch two important 

 expeditions, ostensibly to protect their own frontiers and subjects. 



RUBBER EXPORTS FOR SIX YEARS (IN POUNDS). 



Year. United States. Europe. 



1897. ... 25,612,369 24,057,665 



1898 21,671,801 26,628,790 



1S99... 30,596,123 25,466,854 



1900 27 413,469 31.556,635 



igor 34,283,685 32,494,745 



1902 30.555.463 32,385.380 



Total. Slocks Dec. 31. 



49,670,034 2,078,372 



48,300,591 2,945,346 



56.062,977 1,986.343 



58,970,104 2,052,481 



66,778,430 2,894,639 



62,940,843 2,407,423 



