THE BOOM IN RUBBER

Otago Witness, Issue 2929, 4 May 1910, Page 30

THE BOOM IN RUBBER

BRISBANE, April 28. The Solomon Islands Rubber Company, Ifrith a. capital of £20,000, has been registered. All the shareholders are residents ;of this city. The question of the price of rubber is a very important, one to both cyclists and motorists, seeing the direct and important effect it has on the price of tyree, which makes it a personal consideration with everyone. £**" months ago, when the pxice

of raw rubber soared to unheard-of heights, ws were told that it was the result of a combine to hold up prices, but that, with the putting of the hew season's crop on the market, prices would fall to a more reasonable level. They did fall a little from the height then reached, it is true, but they have again advanced, and rubber is now selling at over 10s per lb, or £ll2O per ton, the reason being simp'iy a, matter of supply and demand. During the last few years a very large amount of capital has been invested in rubber plantation companies, that millions have been planted, and that from now on each year will see a substantial increase in the supply of cultivated rubber from these plantations. Up to this point everything looks favourable for a speedy decline in the price of rubber, but from indications the increase in the demand will be found to be greater than the increase in the supply, and hence the shortage will continue, and possibly be accentuated, and the increase in the demand is to be looked upon very largely as the result of the increased activity in the motor trade, especially in America. In that advancing country, the boom in the motor trade is immense, and the output from the American factories will this year only be limited by the ability to obtain supplies of material. Practically all firms thouehout the States are laying themselves out for a doubled output, and many large new factories have been built, so that, with an additional call for tyres for another 70,000 or 80,000 cars, over and above the number which had to be tyred last year for the American markets alone, the increase in the demand for rubber will bo very great. From present indications, the prices of cycle and motor tyres arc more likely to increase than decrease.