'28 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



July 1, 1921 



Tire Production in the United States 



STATISTICS published by the United States Department of 

 Commerce, together with those gathered and prepared by 

 The India Rubber World, show the development of the 

 American rubber tire industry during and since the world war. 

 That its phenomenal growth is due chiefly to the enormous and 

 steadily increasing use of the automobile for both business and 

 pleasure is indicated by the rapidly advancing motor vehicle regis- 

 tration for recent years and the fact that only about 2'-< per cent 



tion, owing to the wider use and longer life of cord tires, the 

 American demand for tires has grown from about 6,275,000 in 

 1913, to about 32,239,532 in 1920, or more than live times that of 

 1913. On the same basis, the 1920 tire demand for the rest of 

 the world was only 5,9S8,440 tires. 



AMERICAN TIRE AND TUBE PRODUCTION 

 During the past seven years the American tire and tube pro- 

 duction, actual and estimated, has been as follows : 



PNEUMATIC TIEE AND TUBE PEODUCTION 



Year 191,? 



Casings '(i, 588,000 



Tubes 



•Estimated. *Under 6 inches. 



cf the tire product is being e.xported. The United States con- 

 sumes practically all the tires it makes. 



AMERICAN MOTOR VEJ^^CLE REGISTRATION 



The total 1919 registration of 7,558,666 cars represented a gain 

 of 23 per cent over 1918; that of 9,211,295 cars in 1920, a gain 

 of 22 per cent over 1919. Five states — New York, Oliio, Penn- 

 sylvania, California and Illinois, named in their relative order, 



1918 

 •21,000,000 

 •19,000,000 



1919 

 •35,000,000 

 •34,500,000 



1920 

 •43,750,000 

 •43,125,000 



It will be seen that the figures for 1917, the last year prior to 

 government curtailment of tire production, show an increase to 

 nearly four times the output for 1913. Although production in 



1918 was curtailed to about 85 per cent of the 1917 output, the 



1919 production showed an increase over 1917 of 23 per cent in 

 casings and 48 per cent in tubes. In 1920 the production of cas- 

 ings and tubes increased about 25 per cent. At an average of $25 



AUTOMOBILE KEGISTEATION 



Year 



Cars 



have about one-third of the total registration of the whole country. 

 Their 3,107,050 motor vehicles is over 81 per cent more than the 

 combined registration of the entire world exclusive of the United 

 States. 



Of the entire world registration of passenger cars and trucks, 

 numbering 10,922,278, 83 per cent are in the United States. In 

 other words, there are nearly 5^ times as many cars in operation 

 in the United States as in all the rest of the world. It is inter- 

 esting also to note that in 1914 the United States had more motor 



vehicles than all the rest of 

 the world now has. 



Assuming five tires per 

 car as the average annuaV 

 consumption in 1913 and 

 three and one-half tires pei 

 car the present consump- 



914 ms [916 1317 19IB ,9,9 . ,^20 



per tire, the retail value of the 1920 product of casings was about 

 $1,093,750,000, to which may be added $172,500,000 for the tube 

 production at an average of $4 per tube, making a total of 

 $1,266,250,000 for the pneumatic tire output of 1920. 



AMERICAN CRUDE RUBBER CONSUMPTION FOR TIRES 

 For the manufacture of the tires and tubes mentioned above 

 the consumption of crude rubber was as follows : 



1918* I9I9* 1920 

 Automobile and meter truck cas- 

 ings />o«ndj 150.000,0001 225,000,0001 204,852,163 



Inner tubes 35,0O0,000t 48.000.000t 51,025,392 



Solid tites 48,000.000 40,000,000 26.482,247 



Other tires and sundries 15,000,000 12.000,000 10,075,927 



Totals 248,000,000 325,000,000 292,435,729 



*^ Estimated. 

 tUnder 6 inches. 



Only the estimated total weights are available for the years 1913-1916. 

 They are in iwunds: 191.', 65.880,000; 1914, 89,830,000; 1915, 128,400,000; 

 1916 185 649,570. The total 1917 consumption was 233,385,796 pounds. As 

 compared with these fipures, only 47,907,520 pounds of rubber were required 

 to manufacture the 5.988,440 tires required to meet the 1920 world demand 

 ixclusive of the United States, assuming 8 pounds of rubber per tire. 



In 1920 some 51 per cent 

 of the total india rubber im- 



Truck Tires for Original 

 Equipusnt 



Passenger-Car Tires for Original 



EgUIFMENT 



