29 



Saps and Exudation*. 



THE INDUSTRIAL DEMAND. 



POSSIBLE EFFECTS UPON THE RUBBER PLANTING BUSINESS. 



The question as to whether plantation rubber companies are likely tj suffer 

 from the evils attendant on the over-production of the commodity is one which has 

 been incidental referred to in these columns during the p.ist few months. It has 

 been pointed out that so long as the world's consumption of rubber is more than 

 equal to the available supply there is very little danger of any material falling off 

 in the market prices which the commodity consistently commands iu London and 

 other centres. But this very demand and the consequent high price of the better- 

 grade rubber make it possible for the wild rubber collector to compete, and 

 compete successfully, with the plantation owner. As our readers are by this time 

 aware, the present margin of profit to the planter is a very considerable one, and 

 even when an extravagant allowance for workiug expenses and interest upon 

 capital has been made, this profit is anything between 3s. and 4s. per pound. The 

 wild rubber collectors or middlemen agencies, on the other hand, can never hope 

 to keep their expenses down to the same equal level as the planter. The latter, 

 as a matter of fact, can reasonably hope to make considerable reductions under 

 this heading as years go on, and the use of machinery adapted to the rapid curing of 

 the latex becomes more general. Those interested in the collection of wild rubber, 

 on the other hand, have to face the fact that year after year greater distances 

 have to be travelled to obtain sufficient supplies to make their industry a profitable 

 one, while they also know that the manufacturer who must use rubber in his 

 business prefers (other things being equal) to pay a slightly higher price for 

 plantation rubber owing to its greater purity. The best grade Para, from the 

 Middle East, may be said to average over 95 per cent, pure rubber ; the best grades 

 from the Amazon work out at something like 83 per cent, of pure rubber. The 

 difference in these percentages is practically represented by the difference between 

 the prices in the world's markets, and goes far to confirm the contention that the 

 manufacturer prefers and will naturally support the product of the plantations, 

 provided he can be reasonably sure of obtaining fairly continuous supplies. 



This, as we all know, will be the case in a very few years' time. But 

 provided something resembling the present prices obtain it will still pay to collect 

 wild rubber, so that the manufacturer will be able at least to await the most 

 favourable markets (from his standpoint), and not be compelled, as he is at 

 present, to buy in an almost hand-to-mouth fashion. But there is no reason to 

 believe that the market will be glutted with rubber in the not far distant 

 future. 



For not only are the recognised rubber industries using more and more of 

 the commodity every year, but there are many others which, apart altogether from 

 the selling price of rubber, are languishing or are being neglected simply on account 

 of the uncertainty of the supply. There are also still further industries which are 

 at the moment non-existent, but which, were rubber to cheapen in price, would 

 speedily become large and steady consumers. This is a point which those about to 

 embark in rubber plantation exploitation might do well to bear in mind. For 

 although there is no reason to anticipate any marked decline in the market price for 

 years to come, yet the period must arrive when the price will react in obedience to 

 the law of supply and demand. At the present moment, were plantation rubber 

 fetching only, say, 4s. per lb., and the supply from such sources fairly large, much 

 of the wild rubber which is now being marketed at a profit would not be collected 

 at all, or, if so, at very little profit. 



No one anticipates that the six-shilling level for plantation rubber will be 

 maintained for an indefinite period, but, on the other hand, when the supply 



