December 1, 1915.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



147 



wheels by a hydraulic press. For this work we have designed 

 self-contained hydraulic presses mounted on trailer trucks, and 

 adjustable to any size solid rubber tire. 



The war has greatly modified conditions in France, even to the 

 remotest districts, but we have adapted ourselves to war condi- 

 tions and it has becpme part of our every-day life. Confidence is 

 general — no one doubts our final victory. Before the battle of 

 the Marne we had little hope. Since that great success, however, 

 confidence has returned, and although it is not manifested in a 

 boisterous manner, it is lirm in the hearts of our countrymen. 



RUBBER TRADE IN JAPAN IN 1914. 

 By Our Regular Correspondent. 

 I X my contribution to the April issue of The India Rubber 

 * World 1 endeavored to give as complete statistics as possi- 

 ble of the rubber trade of this country during the calendar year 

 1914, but I will take up the subject again to give your readers 

 more detailed information which I have obtained from statistics 

 published recently by our Department of Finance and by the 

 Customs authorities in Kobe. 



Although no large rubber factories e.xisted here during 1914, 

 there were in operation quite a number of small plants, with 

 the result that our consumption of crude rubber increased sub- 

 stantially in spite of war conditions and the incidental hindrance 

 to commerce. The war embargo on rubber injuriously affected 

 our rubber manufacturers. It stopped the supplies of crude 

 rubber we were in the habit of obtaining from Singapore, until 

 the latter part of October, when small quantities were obtained 

 from the Straits Settlements port. The decrease in arrivals of 

 crude rubber was soon felt by our manufacturers, for here in 

 Japan it is not customary to speculate in crude rubber, especially 

 when prices have a downward tendency. Purchases are made 

 only as the material is needed ; so that when the embargo came 

 there were no large supplies of crude rubber on hand in this 

 country. 



Singapore being practically closed to us we endeavored to 

 obtain crude rubber from Dutch India, only to find that the 

 entire production there had been bought up by American in- 

 terests. America and England were still open as sources of 

 supply, but the distance and the high freight rates made pur- 

 chases there impracticable. We did buy some crude rubber in 

 England, but not in sufficient quantities to keep all factories 

 going, and before the end of the year quite a number of our small 

 rubber manufacturing concerns were obliged to close their 

 plants. The larger factories were able to hold out until Feb- 

 ruary and March of the present year when many of these were 

 obliged to shut down because no crude rubber was available. 



In former years we purchased much Borneo and British Indian 

 wild rubber through the Singapore market, chiefly because our 

 manufacturers were under the impression that w'ild rubber was 

 better than the plantation product, but also because the former 

 was cheaper. We now recognize that in the end plantation 

 rubber is cheaper than the wild varieties because there is no loss 

 in washing and refining, as there is with Borneo and British 

 Indian rubber which come to us in a very impure state. Of 

 course, the prices for plantation rubber are not as high as 

 formerly, but the same applies to wild rubber and to South 

 -American and African grades. We have a good opinion here of 

 .African rubbers, but most of our manufacturers arc not equipperl 

 to handle them advantageously. The following table shows the 

 prices we paid for the most popular grades of crude rubber at 

 different times during the year 1914: 



January 

 rubber per 100 pounds $52.50 



British Indian rubber. 

 Plantation sheet 

 Fine Pari hard c 



70.00 

 62.50 

 75.00 



.August November 



and Sep- and 



July. tember. December. 



$67.50 



67.50 



$57.50 $56.00 67.50 

 105.00 



Pale cri'pe is the plantation type most used here, followed by 

 smoked crepe and scrap, in order of importance. 



During the past year the following rubber factories were our 

 principal consumers of crude rubber: The Yokohama Electric 

 Wire Works, Limited, Yokohama; the Mitatsuchi Rubber Manu- 

 facturing Co., Tokio; the Toyo Rubber Co., Limited, Tokio; the 

 Nipon Rubber Co., Limited, Tokio; the Fujikura Electric Wire 

 & Rubber Co., Limited, Tokio; the Nipon Wire & Cable Co., 

 Limited, Tokio; the Kakuichi Rubber Co., Osaka; the Osaka 

 branch of the Yokohama Electric Wire Works, Limited, Osaka ; 

 the Sumitomo Rubber Works, Osaka ; the Hirana Rubber Works, 

 Osaka; the Mutsuda Rubber Works, Osaka; the Asai Rubber 

 Works, Osaka; the Shimada Rubber Works, Osaka; the Asuma 

 Leather Co., Osaka; the Bando Belt Co., Osaka; the Dunlop 

 Rubber Co. (Far East), Limited, Kobe; the Naigai Rubber Co., 

 Limited, Kobe; the Kawaji Rubber Co., Kobe; the Settsu Rubber 

 Co., Limited, Xishinomiya and Ilyogo; the Kamenofuchi Rubber 

 Co.. I'akae and Hyogo ; the Kyushu Electric Wire Co., Limited, 

 Fukuoka, and the Chugoku Rubber Works, Hiroshima. Of the 

 total of our imports of crude rubber two-thirds were consumed 

 in Osaka, Kobe and other western parts of Japan and the rest 

 in Tokio and Yokohama. 



During 1914 a new application for rubber was discovered here 

 and now rubber solution is being used for coating the thongs 

 of the wooden clogs which almost all Japanese wear when out 

 of doors. The widespread use of wooden clogs and this applica- 

 tion of rubber to them is bound to increase our consumption of 

 crude rubber. 



The Japanese Imperial Steel Works at Wakamatsu, Japan, have 

 placed a contract with a British firm for the installation of a 

 benzol plant with an annual output of 2,400 tons of benzol. 

 J.AP.AXESE EXPORTS OF RUBBER GOODS. 



The most important items of our e-xports of manufactured rub- 

 ber goods are rubber insulated electric wires and jinrikisha and 

 bicycle tires, which we ship in quantities to China, Kwangtung 

 Province, Ilong Kong, British India, the Straits Settlements, 

 Dutch India, Great Britain and other countries. From the sta- 

 tistics I gave in my April contribution you will note that our 

 exports in these articles increased more than 50 per cent, in 1914 

 as compared with the preceding year. The increase in these 

 exports started in August, which goes to show that they were 

 largely due to the stoppage of European shipments in these lines. 

 By December the orders in hand were far in excess of our 

 capacity to deliver; our output, as before said, being curtailed 

 by the crude rubber embargo of our allies. Prices, however, were 

 good and our manufacturers made substantial profits. 



The following table shows weights and values of our exports 



of rubber goods through the leading ports of this country for 1914: 



From— Pounds. \'alue. 



Kobe 872,594 $536,970 



Yokohama 6.930 4.214 



Other ports 3,262 1,951 



Total 882.786 $543,135 



As will be noted, most of these exports were made through the 



port of Kobe. The following table shows the destinations of 



exports of rubber goods through this port for 1914 : 



From— Pounds. Value. 



Chin.-i 341.244 $199,823 



Kwangtung Province 2.305 1,139 



Hong Kong 2.913 1,345 



British India 37.689 30,644 



Straits Settlements 221.572 141,041 



Netherlands India 250,223 158.327 



Great Britain 5.758 3,805 



Other countries 10.890 846 



Total 872,594 $536,970 



RL'BBER PL.^NT.\TIONS. 

 Rubber plantations here promise well for the future. We now 

 have some 88,000 acres under Hevea, which will produce about 

 5.000 tons of rubber per year when in full yield. Our present 

 consumption of crude rubber amounts to about 2,000 tons per 

 annum. 



