30
Progress’of
production
of tyres.
factory was £10,019,000 a slight increase on the 1927 total. Sales
of tyres during the year were valued at £10,579,800 of which
£9,580,000 represented domestic sales and £999.800 sales for ex.
port.
104. Numbers of different kinds of tyres produced in Germany
in 1928 show an increase in production on previous years in all
cases except pedal cycle tyres and solid tyres for motor vehicles.
Since the end of 1927 the demand for solid tyres has declined
owing to the preference for pneumatic tyres and to the imminence
in certain localities of legislation to prohibit the use of solid tyres.
The total value of the raw materials used in the tyre industry
in 1928 was less than that in 1927, but the decrease was due to
the decline in the price of raw rubber. Of the total value of
the raw materials used by the 23 factories reporting, namely
£5,250,000, crude rubber accounted for about 50 per cent., fabric
for 31 per cent., chemicals for 13 per cent. and reclaimed rubber
for three per cent. The remaining three per cent. included steel
rims for solid tyres and other semi-manufactured materials of
steel. iron. wire and the like
XXII.—THE INDUSTRY IN JAPAN.
Production.
105. As we have shown in paragraph 18, Japan occupies the
sixth place in the world production of rubber manufactured goods.
In 1929, the Japanese industry absorbed 84,000 tons of crude
rubber, or 4.22 per cent. of the world absorption. The following
table summarises the official figures of production during recent
years :—
Production of Rubber Manufactured Goods in Japan.
Year.
Boots and shoes. !
£000
Tyres. | Other kinds.
£000 £000
Total.
£000
1920 ... .
1921 ... ”
1922 ... - or
1923 ... ee ane
1924 ... or ee
1925 ... stv wes
1926 ... a .
457
,264
993
1,231
1,270
- 1,392
Not available.
622
“9%
17g
29
408
/,327
L616
'704
751
617
"47
ht
3,683
1,439
4,286
4,708
5,195
5,563
5 665
The manufacture of tyres has not increased since 1923, as that
of other kinds of rubber manufactures, due chiefly to the destruc-
tion, in the 1923 earthquake, of the works of the Yokohama Rubber
Company (a joint enterprise between the Furukawa Company and
the Goodrich Rubber Company). The works have been re-erected,
and manufacture has recently been restarted