614 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[August 1, 1919. 



Prices of Rubber Products. 



From "Prices of Rubber and Rubbei 



Products," War Industries Board, Press BuUciin No. 

 Special Expert, Price Section, War Trade Board. 



30, Prepared by Isador Lubin, 



RUBBER PRODUCTS. 



THERE Ai'P£.\RS TO BE NO LIMIT to the Variety of products in the 

 manufacture of which rubber is employed, and it is said that 

 one of the large rubber concerns in this country manufactures 

 nearly 30,000 different articles. Rubber goods vary from con- 

 veyor belts to the finest elastic bands ; all of which, however, 

 can be grouped in nine important categories. 



The following is a classification of the important rubber prob- 



ucts in the order of their importance as determined by the amount 



of crude rubber consumed in their manufacture. 



Table L— CRUDE AND RECLAIMED RUBBER CONSUMED IN THE 



UNITED STATES IN THE PRODUCTION OF RUBBER GOODS, 



1917.' 



Waterpro 

 Rubber cement. 

 Hard rubber goi 

 Miscellaneous . , 



iulating cor 

 thing and clcth. 



Total 



DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES. 



The United States has always led the world in the 

 manufacture of rubber goods, the industry having 

 had its inception here. The output is approximately 

 seven times as large as that of the next manufac- 

 turing nation, and its growth is shown by the fact 

 that in 1906 we consumed 24,113 tons of crude rub- 

 ber, as against 13,838 tons consumed by Great Britain, 

 ihe next largest consumer; in 1917 our consumption 

 had reached 157,369 tons, as compared with 25,983 

 tons consumed by Great Britain. This was an in- 

 creased consumption for the United States of ap- 

 proximately 130,000 tons, or about 600 per cent. The 

 consumption of Great Britain increased by 12,145 

 tons, or about 100 per cent in the same period." 



It is evident from Table I that rubber tires and 

 tubes are the most important products of the in- 

 dustry, having taken over 70 per cent of the total 

 crude rubber consumption in 1917. In 1914 the 

 United States produced 8,021,371 pneumatic tires, 

 while in 1917 the output amounted to 25,835,573 

 tires.' 



Commensurate with the growth of automobile tire 

 production has been that of other rubber products. 

 In 1917 the total value of the rubber goods output 

 in the United States had reached $896,000,000, as 

 contrasted with $301,000,000 in 1914. 



FINISHED RUBBER GOODS. 

 The great number of products turned out by the 

 rubber industry and the limited space available 

 makes impossible as comprehensive an analysis of 

 price fluctuations as would otherwise be desirable. 

 An attempt was made to select representative com- 

 modities which would fairly portray the price situa- 

 tion in the various branches of the industry, and 

 for this purpose the method of classification adopted 

 by the War Service Committee of the Rubber In- 

 dustry of the United States for determining the 

 ?i 1 — U S ai"ou"' of crude rubber which went into the various 

 Consumption,' forms of rubber goods was used. As shown in 

 Rubber, 1917. j^y^^^ j_ ^j^jj classification consists of nine sections. 



Because of difficulties experienced in securing price quotations, 

 however, it was found necessary to omit certain classes of 

 goods. The most important of these was insulated wire. It 

 appeared impossible to separate the price of insulating ma- 

 terials from that of the finished insulated wire, so that quo- 

 tations for this class would have little worth in showing price 

 fluclations. The classes of products included are as follows: 



1. Tires and tubes. 



2. Mechanical rubber goods. 



3. Boots and .shoes. 



4. Druggists' sundries. 



5. Waterproof clothing. 



Reference to Table I will show that the branches of the industry 

 producing these goods took 94.3 per cent of the total rubber 

 consumption of the United States in 1917, and it is believed that 

 together they are fully representative of the total rubber prod- 

 uct output of the country. 



TIEES AND TUBES. 



This type of rubber goods has been divided into 3 groups: (1) 

 automobile pneumatic tires, (2) solid tires, and (3) automobile 

 pneumatic tubes. Since approximately 50 per cent of the auto- 

 mobiles in the United States in 1917 were Fords, it is reasonable 

 to conclude that about one-half of the pneumatic tires manu- 

 factured in that year were of the size used on such cars. There- 

 fore 30 by 2>V2 inch tires, together with the 33 by 4 inch size, 

 which is another variety commonly used, were selected as the 

 types for which prices are quoted. Corresponding sizes were 

 taken as most representative for automobile tubes. 



As regards solid tires, which have played an ever-increasing 

 part in the rubber industry, the 36 by 5 inch type which was used 

 in considerable quantities by the United States Motor Transport 

 Corps was selected as representative. 



MECHANICAL EUBBEK GOODS. 



A number of commodities are included in this general cate- 

 gory, namely : belting, hose, packing, tubing, lining, tape, and 

 innumerable other rubber goods. The most important are belt- 

 ing and hose, and their price fluctuations have been used to char- 

 acterize the situation in the mechanical goods section. 



BOOTS AND SHOES. 

 For this branch of the industry, two samples have been se- 

 lected : (1) rubber boots, and (2) arctics. The types taken as 

 representative are of relatively standard variety and form an 

 important part of the sales of a large producer of boots and 

 shoes. 



DRUGGISTS' STTNDSIES. 



Hot-water bottles and ice bags may be considered the most 

 typical of the products of the manufacturers of druggists' sun- 

 dries. Two types of hot-water bottles which have an extensive 

 sale were used in quoting prices for this class of goods, while 

 in the case of ice bags there were selected three styles which were 

 sold in large quantities by two important manufacturers. 



RUBBER CLOTHING. 



Rubber clothing, according to The Rubber Association of 

 America, may be divided into two distinct classes: (1) calen- 

 dered rubber clothing, (2) double and single texture raincoats. 



^ These data were secured by The Rubber Association of America through 

 a questionnaire sent to 503 consumers of rubber, 448 of whom replied. 



' Memorandum on the Rubber Industry. 



'The growth of the rubber tire industry is well reflected in the patents 

 issued by the United States Patent Office. Fully one-half of the American 

 patents issued in 1916 relating to rubber apply to rubber tires, treads, 

 ^tire-building, tire-repair machines, rims, etc. 



