COMMODITY MARKETS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 189, 13 August 1940, Page 3

COMMODITY MARKETS

EFFECT OF FAR EAST SITUATION RUBBER AND TIN FIRM LONDON, Aug. 10. War uncertainties dominate the free commodity markets. The possibility of Italian military action threatening to interrupt cultivation in Egypt and the Sudan proved the sustaining factor in the upward movement of cotton prices, specially of Egyptian descriptions. Likewise the increased fluidity of the Far Eastern situation reinforced the United States purchases plan as a factor in making for the firmness of rubber. Tin showed a strong resistance to the increase in the visible supplies. Trade circles expect Far Eastern complications to stimulate restocking purchases as a safeguard against the interruption of shipments from that source. Meanwhile it is thought that support is assured to the market by the United States huge buying which will quickly arrest any declining tendency in tin prices.

REVISED TIN QUOTAS INCREASE FOR F. MALAY STATES The Federated Malay States’ domestic tin production quota for the present quota period, the quarter ending September 30, has been fixed at an increased rate of 100 per cent. The increase is from 80 per cent. The domestic quota for the following three quota periods will be announced at the end of each quota period, according to advice received by Alluvial Tin (Aust.), Ltd. The announcement follows the decision early this month by the International Tin Committee that the quota release will be at the rate of 130 per cent, for one year from July 1, this being an increase of 30

per cent, on the quota for the second quarter this year. The Thailand quota has already been increased to 80 per cent, for the second half of 1940, from 77 per cent, for the first half of the year, and will probably be augmented by a bonus release later in the quota period.

The fact that the international quota was lifted to the record level of 130 per cent, for 12 months, instead of the usual practice of fixing the rate for no longer than quarterly periods, is indicative of the need for increasing stocks of metal, particularly to satisfy the demand from the United States. A cable message from London published on July 10 was to the effect that the Tin Producers’ Association stated that the quota rate of 130 per cent, meant that tin producers within the controlled scheme will be able to work to the utmost capacity.