Evening star., 1933-12-03
HIGHER PRICES DUE
IN PAINT INDUSTRY
As ORDERS MOUNT
Sales Near Highest Level
Within Two Years and
Costs Increase.
HOMES AND BUILDINGS
SAVED FROM NEGLECT
Auto Industry Leads Consumption,
but Scattered Buying Plays
Important Part.
BY JOHN A. CRONE.

special DlSpdlCn 10 Inc OltI.
NEW YORK, December (CPAD.-
With sales near their highest level in
two years and with raw material and
manufacturing costs mounting, the
American paint and varnish industries,
which are the worlds largest manufac-
turers, consumers and exporters of such
products, are revising 1884 price con-
tracts upward.
October sales to be announced within
the next fortnight. Will show a gain
over those of September and August,
both of which increased over the CORE
spending months of the last two years.
Owners of homes, buildings and struc-
lures started then to make up for the
serious neglect in repainting and pre-
serving interiors and exteriors that de-
veloped in the last few years.
Although the automobile industry.
which leads in paint and varnish con-
sumption, contributed Importantly TO
this upturn in demand, scattered buying
from many sources and for numerous
items of The several thousand prepared
paint and enamel products Influenced
many sections of the world. Various
countries produce more than a thousand
different materials, such as earth or ore
pigments, oils resins. gums volatile
thinners and pigments made from heavy
chemicals and organic dyestuffs, which
make up this half-billion dollar busi-
ness that normally employs $4,000
workers.
Federal Aid Cited.
The various Governmental agencies
aiding railroads and construction. sec
ond and third largest consumers OF
paint, naturally will tend to increase
paint demand. Meanwhile paint and
varnish makers. who accumulated raw
materials, especially imported items
early in the year. have benefited quite
as much by the sharp advances in such
inventories as they have from expand
ing sales.
Faced now with the necessity OF re-
placing raw materials. acquired at low
levels. manufacturers are compelled to
mark up the prices Of their finished
products. Recently Glidden Co. and
Du Pont Co. raised their quotations on
paints and 5 per cent, respectively
Others here, in Cleveland, Detroit and
Wilmington have followed with paints.
and in some instances with varnish
prices.
Imported raw materials naturally have
felt the force Of f1uctuating foreign ex-
changes The relationship. for example.
ling and Dutch guilders is quite marked.
In late March it was possible to obtain
large quantities Of Batavia dammar here
at 8l2 to 9l2 cents pound Singapore
at at 1oIs-i11s and - cents, respec-
tiyely. Batavia today is around l312-l4
cents pound, which is not its peak for
the year
Fortunately for the American varnish
industry, it is not as dependent on the
vanSh gums collected from Australia
Africa India and other tropical coun-
tries in the past. due to the efforts of
research laboratories to find chemical
products to replace natural ones, The
automotive industry alone in recent
years would have compelled a great in
crease in the acreage of gum tree plan
tations were it not for the development
of lacQuerS.
Chemically made lacquers replace
much human labor on plantations,
which. according to gum importers, is
Just as well or an industry allied to
the automobile might be feeling the
effects of a labor shortage today. Given
choice between gathering gums or
tapping rubber trees, the average native
prefers the latter. Shortly before gum
quotations here turned upward. rubber
moved forward, SO natives sought work
on rubber rather than gum plantations.
Shellac in early April was quoted
around cents a pound against 11l2
cents pound recently, due to the gyra-
tions of sterling and dollars. Most of
our shellac imports come from Calcutta.
In the fiscal year ended March 81 last
such exports to the United States
amounted to 66,058 hundredweight
against 100869 for the preceding year
and ll7043 two years ago. Naturally
with finished product demand dull and
the business outlook uncertain, Amer
lean users of Shellacs bought sparingly.
Small stocks, better demand. and
fluctuating foreign exchanges served to
lift this item.
Nature also intervened. Take San
derac gum from North Africa. The crop
this year is one of the shortest on rec
ORD. This development merely adds to
other economic forces at work.
sales. according to reports to the De-
partment of Commerce, totaled $40, $780,
811 against $16,032,441 in the same
month a year ago. September sales of
s19,097712 contrasted with S16,805.7
in September, 1882. Industrial rather
than trade sales in both of these months
| made the best gains over a year ago.
indicating that corporations are leading
the preservation campaign.
Copyright. 1933D