36 THE CUBA REVIEW 



Earnings of the Havana Electric Railway, Light & Power Company 



Month of February 2 Months to February 2| 



1923 1922 1923 1922 



Operating revenues $1,086,417 $1,077,896 $2,214,251 $2,217,94 



Operating expenses and taxes 496,063 511,107 1,041,274 1,095,99^ 



Net revenues 590,354 566,789 1,172,977 1,121,946 



Other income 19,613 12,663 39,050 21,494 



Total income 609,967 579,452 1,212,027 1,143,440 



Interest charges 93,279 88,983 186,564 177,970 



Income, after deducting taxes and inter- 

 est charges 516,688 490,469 1,025,463 965,470 



Sinking fund requirements 25,466 22,662 50,932 45,324 



Balance of income 491,222 467,807 974,532 920,146 



Sugar Review 



specially writteji jor The Cuba Review by Willett & Gray, New York, N. Y. 



This month has shown the direct results of putting the sugar market up in the 

 United States in the middle of Winter. We have repeatedly called to the attention 

 of operators in sugar the danger of bulling the market in January, February and March 

 and during this period of time we continually remarked in our journals the danger of 

 buyers operating on such a market. The operators, however, insisted that it was a 

 different year from other years and that what previously happened would not happen 

 again, as circumstances were supposed to be different throughout the sugar world. 

 As it turned out, however, the sugar situation has out-turned the same as it has 

 done many times before, in that the advancing prices during the Winter season induced 

 buyers to purchase much more sugar than they could reasonably dispose of and, 

 naturally, they had to re-sell sugars in order to dispose of the surplus. This liquidation, 

 while it was felt to some extent during May, was quite drastic during the month of 

 June and, hence, we have had, during the greater part of the month, a severe declining 

 market. At the time of our last review, dated May 25, 1923, Cuban sugars were selling 

 at 63^0 c. & f., but by the end of that month had declined to 6^c c. & f., and then we 

 had a sharp decline to 5c c. & f., which happened on June 19th. Since that time, 

 however, we have had a quick reaction to 6c, followed by a renewed decline of 5^c 

 c. & f. 



This liquidation was not confined to this country alone, but occurred in several 

 European countries, as well as Java and India, and all of this selling had its effect 

 on the declining prices. 



Advices from the beet-growing sections of Europe are somewhat variable, Czecho- 

 slovakia reporting ideal conditions, while Germany, France and Belgium state that 

 the weather has been somewhat too cool for the best development of the beet crops. 



What we stated above in regard to raw sugars applies to the refined article as 

 well, and there has been considerable selling of refined sugars by buyers who had 

 over-bought. These re-sales were made as low as 8.75c less 2 per cent, for cash, 

 compared with refiners' quotations of 9.2Sc to 9.90c, regular terms. 



During the past few days, owing to the improved weather, which encourages the 

 consumption of sugar, and the temporarily better raw market, the situation is improved 

 somewhat and it is now difficult to buy sugars from first or second hands at lower than 

 9.25c, regular terms. 



There has been severe competition in the United Kingdom for the sale of refined 

 sugar and several cargoes of American refined sugars, which had been consigned to 

 the United Kingdom for sale there, caused a severe decline in the prices of English 

 refined, the English refiners reducing their prices from 2s to 5s per cwt., depending 

 on delivery. 



