236 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[February 1. 1914. 



THE RUBBER TRADE IN GERMANY AND RUSSIA 



IN 1913. 



By an Occasional Correspondent. 



AS a result of the fall in crude rubber prices, German rubber 

 manufacturers had in many cases offers of orders at prices 

 which they had to decline. The cost of other raw materials had 

 risen, rather than fallen ; this remark applying to cotton goods, 

 benzine, coal and other elements of manufacture. 



The prices of automobile tires have sufTered from foreign com- 

 petition. It would seem that this article has reached a point 

 where no profit remains, only high quality enabling producers 

 to compete. The opinion has been expressed that the guarantees 

 now customary exercise an injurious effect on the trade and that 

 it is time they were abolished. No extension seems likely of 

 trade in bicycle tires. 



On account of the increased demand for the use of motor 

 trucks, the trade in solid tires is increasing. The prices to deal- 

 ers and consumers have been, however, so low as to preclude 

 manufacturers from making a fair profit. 



Rubber heels have been selling on the same scale as in 1912, 

 but the tendency has been to use cheap goods instead of better 

 qualities. Prospects for the coming year are about on a level 

 with 1913. 



Brewers" hose was more active, on account of the improved 

 condition of the breweries. In gas tubing the ideal article is 

 still being looked for, none of the existing forms being satis- 

 factory. Steam hose has suffered from the competition of metal 

 hose with movable joints. In place of the dearer acid hose, 

 glass tubing has been in many cases used. Spiral rubber hose 

 Tias suffered from the competition of other materials. Garden 

 hose was disappointing to manufacturers, the season having 

 opened well and then relapsed. Vacuum cleaner hose met with 

 good demand on account of its advantages. Rubber mats and 

 stair covering have been in request. Inquiry for bottle discs 

 was moderate. Rubber gloves are being constantly sold on a 

 scale of increased importance, for their various uses. 



The relative lack of new factory installations naturally affected 

 business in driving belts. Trade has for some years been un- 

 satisfactory in this branch, the competition of leather belting 

 becoming constantly keener. 



THE RUSSI.XX RUBBER GOODS MARKET. 



The Russian rubber goods trade is said to be in an excep- 

 tionally active condition, the factories being overwhelmed with 

 ■orders from the various provinces and some of them being un- 

 able to accept the business offered. They would not have got 

 so far behind with their orders, but for the scarcity of benzine, 

 resulting from the strike at Baku, which has made it necessary 

 to import the article. 



The demand has materially increased for all rubber articles, 

 particularly for rubber shoes and automobile tires, while the 

 augmented needs of industry and shipbuilding exercise a favor- 

 able effect on the mill supply trade. 



The automobile tire business owes its activity to the fact that 

 each automobile uses every year approximately $300 worth of 

 tires, and the number of automobiles is increasing. The Rus- 

 sian industry cannot meet the requirements of the market and 

 tires have to be imported. 



Notwithstanding the active demand for rubber goods, prices 

 have fallen, those of rubber shoes having dropped 20 to 23 per 

 cent., and automobile tires 30 per cent. These reductions are 

 due to the lower price of rubber, as well as to the reduction in 

 cost of manufacture, through competition. Credits are in a sat- 

 isfactory condition, business not being restricted from this cause, 

 as is sometimes the case. 



AN ANTWERP VIEW OF PLANTATION AND PARA. 



IN their annual report, Grisar & Co., of Antwerp, remark that 

 the equality of plantation and fine Para rubbers is no longer 

 disputed when they are both well prepared, but at the same 

 time the want of uniformity places the former in a position of 

 inferiority to the latter. 



Fine Para is harvested by the only method known since time 

 immemorial : tlie coagulation of the latex by the smoke of palm 

 nuts found in the equatorial forests. This method, altho 

 relatively primitive (as it leaves 15 to 20 per cent, of volatile 

 substances in the rubber), has the advantage of the product 

 being absolutely homogeneous and never varying in its quality. 



The fact that the Hcvea trees in the forest are so widely 

 scattered makes it necessary for the rubber gatherer to locate 

 his camp near a considerable cluster of old trees, in order to 

 insure a sufficient supply of latex. Consequently the only trees 

 placed under contribution are more than 20 years old. 



In the East the situation is notably different, the rubber in- 

 dustry being relatively young, and various methods of coagula- 

 tion being tried until the "rational process" is found. Meantime 

 the coagulating agent principally employed is acetic acid, but the 

 right proportion is not always observed and very often an 

 excessive quantity injures the product. At the plantations, the 

 trees being from 5 to 8 years of age, the factory receives and 

 treats latex from trees of different ages. In some cases, chem- 

 icals have to be added to the fresh latex to delay coagulation, 

 when the plantation is distant from the factory. As the con- 

 sumer is now obliged to make long and expensive tests to know 

 what he is buying, referring to the establishment of a testing 

 station as has been suggested by the Rubber Growers' Associa- 

 tion of London, Messrs. Grisar remark that, while it offers appa- 

 rent benefits to consumers, it does not remove the initial cause 

 of complaint — the mixture of several qualities in one shipment. 



They suggest the installation in the chief plantation districts 

 of special depots solely intended for the rapid coagulation of 

 the latex by the processes now admitted to be the most effective, 

 without any admixture of needless coagulants or anti-coaguknts. 

 In conclusion they say that the avoiding of organic fermenta- 

 tions and the form the rubber will assume in the central factory 

 (whether Crepe or Smoked Sheet) will in no degree affect its 

 intrinsic value. The advantage of the system, it is added, will 

 l-.e the securing of a crude material as homogeneous as Para, 



Should be on every rubber man's desk — Ctude Rubber and 

 Compounding Ingredients ; Rubber Country of the Amazon ; 

 Rubber Trade Directory of the World. 



INDIA-RUBBER GOODS IN COMMERCE. 



EXPORTS FHOM THE UNITED STATES. 



OFFICIAL Statement of values of exports of manufactures of 

 india-rubber and gutta percha for the month of October, 

 1913, and for the first ten months of five fiscal years, beginning 

 Januarv 1 : 



Belting. Boots .Ml 



Mo.xTHS. Packing and Other Total. 



and Hose. Shoes. Rubber. 



October, 1913 $265,798 $136,840 $643,285 $1,045,923 



January-September .. 1.891.785 982,953 6.546,215 9.420,953 



Total. 1913 $2.157,5.^3 $1,119,793 $7,189,500 $10,466,876 



Total 1912 2.125.333 1,148.716 6.623,334 9.897,383 



Total 1911 1.909.150 1,4,S7,563 5.935.113 9,331.826 



Total 1910 1.759.590 1.906.961 4.687.399 8,353,950 



Total! 1909 1,469.272 1.2.88,705 3,478,438 6,236,415 



The above heading. ".\\\ Other Rubber," for the month of 

 October. 1913. and for the first ten months of three fiscal years, 

 beginning January 1. includes the following details relating to 

 tires : 



For All 



Months. .Automobiles. Other. Total. 



October. 1913 $237,116 $75,207 $312,323 



January-September 3.244.015 429,668 3.673,683 



Total 1913 $3.4.81,131 $504..87S $3.9.86.006 



Total' 1912 2.759.339 485,908 3,245.247 



Total 1911 2,080.517 480.915 2.561,432 



