THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



713 



Tire Production in the United States. 



STATISTICS recently published 

 l)y the Xatioiial Automobile 

 Chamber of Commerce, Inc., 

 together with those gathered and 

 prepared by The India Rubber 

 World, show the complete re- 

 sumption of the growth of the rub- 

 ber tire industry following the 

 check placed upon its normal de- 

 velopment by the Government 

 after the United States joined in 

 the world war. 



That the phenomenal growth '■ 

 of the American tire output is 

 due chiefly to the enormous and ■ 

 steadily increasing use of the 

 automobile for both business 

 and pleasure in the United 

 States is indicated by the mo- 

 tor vehicle registration for re- 

 cent years and the fact that 

 only about 2 per cent of the' 

 tire product is being exported. 

 The United States consumes 

 practically all the tires it makes. 



1917. 



Car 



354,! 



,339 



Assuming five tires per car as the average annual consumption 

 in 1913 and four and one-half tires per car the present consump- 

 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 over 34.000.000 in 1919, or nearly five and one-half 

 times that of 191.i. 



AMERICAN TIRE AND TUBE PRODUCTION. 



During the past seven ye.irs the American tire and tube produc- 

 tion, actual and estimated, has been as follows: 



Year . 



In 1919 approximately 60 

 per cent of the india rubber 

 consumed in the United States 

 was used for tires and tire 

 sundries as against 75 per 

 cent in 1917 and only 58 per 

 cent of the imports for the 

 fiscal year 1913, indicating 

 the greater supply of the raw 

 material. The actual quantity 

 of crude rubber used in 1919, 

 however, was almost five 

 times that for the year 1913. 

 as against about three and 

 one-half times that for the 

 year 1917. 



AMERICAN TIRE DEMAND FOR 

 ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT. 



Statistics of motor vehicle 

 production in the United 

 States indicate the increasing 

 number of pneumatic and 

 solid tires required annually 

 for original equipment. 



MOTOR VEHICLE 

 PRODUCTION. 



Passenger 

 Vear. Cars. 



1913 461,500 



1914 543,679 



1915 818,618 



1916 1,493.617 



5917 1.740.792 



1918 926,388 



1919 1,657,652 



50 / 



[ / I 



A I 



Motor 

 Trucks. 

 23,500 

 25,375 

 74,000 

 90,000 

 128,157 

 227,250 

 316,364 



485,000 

 569,045 

 892.618 

 1,583.617 

 1,868,947 

 1,153.637 

 1,974,016 



Only a cursory inspection of these figures is necessary to see 

 how the production of passenger cars and correspondingly of 

 pneumatic tires under six inches was curtailed by the war situ- 

 ation of 1918, and the production of trucks and truck tires stimu- 

 lated. Truck tire production for original equipment showed 

 continuous growth during the war period. In 1918 it had in- 

 creased to over 9y2 times the 1913 production for this purpose 



ndrr 6 inches 



*12.S40.00C 



1917. 

 25,840.656 

 23,256,752 



1918 1919. 



'21,000.000 *3S, 000.000 



•19,000,000 '34,500,000 



•Estimated 



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. At an average of $30 

 per tire the value of the 1919 product of casings under six inches 

 was about $1,050,000,000, to which may be added $172,500,000 for 

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

 of $l,222,.S0O.(X)O for the pneumatic tire output of 1919, exclusive 

 of giant cord tires for heavy trucks. 



AMERICAN CRUDE RUBBER CONSUMPTION FOR TIRES. 



For the manufacture of the tires and tubes mentioned above 

 the consumption of crude rubber was as follows : 



1917. 1918.' 1919.* 



Casings under 6 inches pounds 162.643,482 150.00fl.0fl0 



Tubes under 6 inches 35.704,446 35,000.nnfl 



Solid tires 25,055,673 4R,flOO,000 



Other tires and sundries 9,983,195 



15.000.000 



225.0flO.nOfl 

 48.flOO,000 

 40.000.000 

 12.000,000 



Totals 



233.386,796 248,000,000 325,000.000 



'Estimated. 



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

 Thev are in pounds: 1913, 65.880.000: 1914. 89.830.000; 1915. 128,400.000; 

 1916. 185.649.570, 



and in 1919 to nearly W/, times the 1913 production. Pneu- 

 matic tire production for the original equipment of passenger 

 cars reached its highest figure for the year 1917, when it was 

 more than 3^ times the 1913 output. This volume of business 

 was not quite reached in 1919, but the output for original equip- 

 ment that year was more than 3>2 times the 1913 production 

 for this purpose. It is seen, therefore, that while 1,940,000 tires 

 sufficed for new equipment in 1913, no less than 7,475,888 were 

 required in 1917, and 7,896,064 in 1919, an increase to over four 

 times the 1913 requirements. Although the greater volume of 

 increase has been in pneumatic tires under 6 inches, the greater 

 rate of increase has been in solid and large pneumatic tires for 

 trucks. 



TIRES IN USE IN THE UNITED STATES. 

 Of the 7,565,446 motor vehicles registered in the United States 

 during the calendar year 1919, some 750,000 were trucks, so that 

 about 8^ times as many pneumatic tires under 6 inches as truck 

 tires were in use last year, the number of each sort, exclusive of 

 spares and replacements, being approximately 27,23S,.392 pneu- 

 matics under six inches and 3,000,000 truck tires. One additional 

 tire per car would be a conservative estimate for spares and 



