ANNIVERSARY NUMBER 1919 



This was in part due to the fact that until 

 1917, the only banks in Manila had been of 

 foreign or largely foreign capital; but in that 

 year was founded the Philippine National 

 Bank which is operated with the assistance 

 of Government funds and has greatly con- 

 tributed to development of the resources of 

 the country by its own people. 



Like all good things there have been in- 

 stances in which this boom in stocks has been 

 overdone. The rapid increase in the number 

 of Expellers, from 16 in 1915 to over 200 at 

 the present (March 1919) has caused so great 

 a demand for copra that the price has risen 

 to the point where only moderate returns 

 can be expected for awhile. This will put 

 a premium on efficiency, however, and in the 

 end prove a benefit to the Islands. Since 

 the production of copra may be expected 

 to double every five years it will not be long 

 before an adequate supply will be obtain- 

 able. To show how the industry has grown 

 from the single company of 1913, a list is 

 appended of the factories organized and ready 

 for operation as of March 31, 1919. 



OIL MILLS OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLAMDS 



American Refining Co. 



Arandes, Francisco. 



Carrero, Vidal & Co. 



Central Oil Corporation 



Cooperative Coco Products Co. 



Cooperative Copra Extracting Co. 



Copra Products, Inc. 



Cristobal Oil Co. 



Eastern Oil Co. 



Fabrica de Aceite de Filipinas. 



Francisco, Evaristo. 



Franco-Philippine Oil Co. 



General Oil Co. 



Harrison, R. J. 



Hispano-Philippine Oil Co. 



Hog Cauayan Oil Co. 



Iloilo Oil Co. 



Insular Phil. Coco Oil Co. 



International Oil Co. 



Laguna Coco Oil Co. 



Luzon Refining Co. 



Madrigal, Vicente 



Magallanes Oil Mills. 



Manila Coconut Oil Co. 



Manila Oil Refining and By-Products Co. 



Misamis-Surigao Oil Co. 



National Coconut Oil Co. 



Oceanic Oil Co. 



Oil Development Co. 



Oriental Coconut Oil Co. 



Oriental Copra & Oil Export Co. 



Palanca-Choy Oil Co. 



Panay & Xegros Oil Co. 



Philippine American Oil Co. 



Philippine Mfg. Co. 



Philippine Oil Products Co. 



Philippine Refining Co. 



Philippine Takushoku Kaisha. 



Philippine Vegetable Oil Co. 



Poizat Vegetable Oil Mills 



Rizal Refining Co. 



Samar Products Co. 



Sta Ana Oil Mills, Inc. 



Tan Luan Oil Mill 



Zamboanga Oil Co. 



Escudero Oil Co. 



Visayan Refining Co. 



Of the above .mills only 18 were in full 

 operation during October, 1918, the latest 

 month for which official figures are avail- 

 able. These 18 mills were equipped to 

 produce 964 short tons of oil per day, 

 but their actual output was only 523 

 tons, both figures based on a day of 24 

 hours. When all the mills in the above 

 list are in full operation they will have a 

 possible maximum production of over 1,300 

 tons per day or 455,000 tons per year. 

 It will be many a year before this max- 

 imum can be realized. 



The development of the oil business in 

 Manila has been coincident with, and con- 



ducive to, progress in the industry in the 

 United States, which has been the sole mar- 

 ket for the Manila product throughout the 

 war period. It was originally the custom to 

 ship oil in strong steel containers which had 

 to be returned from point of destination when 

 empty. During the war it was impossible 

 to obtain these steel containers in anything 

 like sufficient quantity and circumstances 

 forced the adoption of wooden barrels. These 

 were shipped out from the Pacific Coast, 

 knocked down, and assembled in Manila. 

 The package was obtainable in very large 

 quantities and at much less cost than the 

 steel drums and the business has grown to 

 very large proportions. It is estimated that 

 during 1918 over 120,000 barrels were used. 

 One barrel company has a large coopering 

 and assembling plant located in Manila. 



A still better form of shipment was soon 

 devised in the utilization of tank steamers. 

 The Standard Oil Company owns several 

 large tank steamers which carry fuel oil and 

 petroleum from the Pacific Coast to the Orient 

 but these usually returned in ballast. It was 

 not believed feasible to ship vegetable oil in 

 these tanks because of fear of contamination 

 from the residue of the fuel oil. The Visa- 

 yan Refining Company, however, believed 

 they could overcome these difficulties and 

 by cleaning the tanks with live steam, swab- 

 bing them up with the copra meal itself, they 

 accomplished the task, working a complete 

 innovation in the trade. It was then neces- 

 sary to provide proper facilities in the States 

 for discharging the oil into storage tanks, and 

 forwarding it in tank cars. There was a short- 

 age, and still is, of both the tanks and the cars, 

 but leading oil mills have begun construction 

 of their own tanks in San Francisco and Seat- 

 tle, and this difficulty will soon be a thing of 

 the past In the meantime the largest users 

 of oil in the States are also falling into line 

 and equipping themselves so that they can 

 handle and store the bulk oil. 



An interesting feature about bulk ship- 

 ments of oil is that, while coconut oil in the 

 Philippines or any tropical climate is a liquid, 

 it becomes in a cold climate a solid fat slightly 

 resembling paraffine. In order to discharge 

 from a vessel's tanks oil which has solidified, 



steam pipes are run into the hold of the vessel 

 and steam can be turned on when desired, 

 thus melting the oil so that it can be pumped 

 out. 



The following table shows by years until 

 1918, and by separate months for that year, 

 how rapidly the industry expanded in Manila. 



Exports of Coconut Oil from the Philippines 

 [Courtesy of Manila Merchants' Association.] 



The future of the coconut industry in the 

 Philippines will be one of the bright spots of 

 the country's history. The average rainfall 

 throughout the coconut growing districts in 

 a year is not far from 90 inches, or more than 

 some districts of Arizona get in 30 years, * 

 so that the production of nuts is more favor- 

 ed than anywhere else in the world. It is 

 unfortunate that the rainfall which makes 

 such fine nuts at the same time makes it diffi- 

 cult to sun-dry the coconut meat. As a 

 result the Philippine copra is usually praised 

 for its quantity and blamed for its quality. 

 It is only a question of time, however, when 

 mechanical dryers will be available and then 

 the Philippine copra production will leave 

 nothing to be desired. We are today only 

 at the threshold of the development of the 

 coconut industry. In this opening act, just 

 ending as the curtain has been rung down on 

 the World War, actors have held the stage 

 whose successes rival the stories of the Ara- 

 bian Nights. With the tremendous possib- 

 ilities of the P. I. still scarcely touched who 

 shall say that as marvelous a chapter shall 

 not be written during the next decade? 



*Atimonan averages 106 inches per annum; Sorso- 

 gon. 220 inches; Yuma. Arizona. 3.1 inches. 



FIRST REMOVING THE MEAT FROM THE COCONUT, AFTER WHICH IT IS CONVERTED INTO COPRA BY EITHER OF THREE 

 METHODS SUN DRYING. KILH DRYING OR MECHANICAL DRYING 



