RUBBER OUTLOOK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 118, 21 May 1945, Page 3

RUBBER OUTLOOK

BIG INFLUENCE OF SYNTHETICS LONDON, May 8. The rapid progress of the war against Japan has revived discussion about the future scope for natural and synthetic rubber. The chairman's remarks at a meeting of the Rubber Growers' Association of the potential disequilibrium between world supply and demand in the early post-war period focused attention on the sombre aspect of the commodity outlook. In this period the combined annual capacity from plantations and the synthetic industries is expected to be nearly 3,000,000 tons against a maximum potential demand of 1,500,000 tons. Many circles in London are hopeful of an arrangement between the United States and Empire and Dutch interests. The Statist, however, expresses the view that phenomenal development of synthetic products, such as rubber and oil, which, with the ingenuity of finding substitute materials, has greatly helped the enemy in anti-blockade efforts, is bound, during the peace years, to influence the course of development in the commodity field.