Evening star., 1926-03-17
TIRE FIRMS PLIGHT
NOT SAT|SFA FACTORY
Public Holding 0ft-Good
Part of 0utturn Going
Into Stock.

special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch TO The Star.
NEW YORK. March 1.-THE situa
ton of the tire manufacturers is any
thing but satisfactory, despite declar;t-
tions by Secretary Hoover that the
,p,I against restriction of rubber pro
ducf,or hv Great Britain WAS proving
-frcesstui. That was the stand taken
~i prominent men in the industry
today.
Factories are not running at ca
pacity. Sales SO far this year have
not been M to expectation. The
public is holding off and good part
OF the outturn of the factories is GO
irG Into stock.
Secretary Hoover pointed out here
that crude rubber had dropped 30
per cent. and that there had also
been {. recent cut in the price of
tires. Manufacturers say these things
have not helped them. The cut In
tires, .hey say. has embarrassed the
dealers and caused the holding up ol
retail sales. The dealers have been
loath to buy while they had tires in
their racks which cost them moro
and which they had to clear out IL
order to make way for rev sto"';.
The public noting the drop in crude
prices, has been holding off for still
went up so to 60 per cent. AS rubber
advanced. they have come down only
10 to II per cent. The weather has
been a factor since the normal re-
placement demand of the Spring has
been DELAYED by cold weather.
Manufacturers now admit they failed
to gauge the market accurately. They
say the larger compa MES stocked up
heavily on crude rubber at around so
cents pound. or high above the pres
ent figure. and that consequently they
now are putting this high-cost rubber
into tires which they are having
trouble in selling The smaller COM
panieS are in better shape in this re-
gard than the large concerns, since
they did not stock SO heavily when
rubber was high.
There are strong Publications. that
there will be no further cut in the
price OF tires to the public. Another
cut. the manufacturers say, would hand
the dealer another wallop before he
had recovered from the first one.
Makers are stressing the cost of raw
materials other than rubber. About
S to 10 pounds of rubber goes into a
tires. so that reduction in crude rub
Der of so per cent, the high OF last
wear. wot Ill mean only a saving OF 81
to s. on each tire.
Raw cotton is low, but special
grades are In sharp demand and
have not followed the price trends
of the ordinary grades downward so
sharply The campaign to conserve
rubber and use reclaimed rubber.
sponsored by the Department of Com
melce has not proved entirely s;ttiS-
factory to tire manufacturers. Secre-
tary Hoover asserts that there has
been a lessened demand for new rub
ber goods and manufacturers say
this has hurt their sales.
Denies Reclaiming Rubber.
One tire company has taken the
bull by the horns and advertises that
there s. no reclaimed rubber in its
lines. 1t states that putting reclaimed
rubber into tires is like putting
shody into high-grade woolen suits.
Intilnations have been heard that a
further cut in tire prices would re-
suit in the use of cheaper materials.
and since manufacturers are not
likely to take such a step, the situa-
ton favors a stability of the present
price range.
The manufacturers have little to
complain of so far as demand for
tires for original equipment is con-
cerned Production has been heavy
all year at the automobile factories.
1t still is heavy. although the larger
manufacturers have now reached a
mace where outturn Is ahead Of sales
TO the ultimate consumers. How
ever, the regular Spring demand Is
calculated to carry off this surplus
stock and still leave production at a
high rate.