The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-03-31

IJOIbt dAid diate possibilities for building it up are nil. Further, more than 300,- 900 tons of rubber disappeared last year through having been worn out. TIRE QUOTA FARE
 BELOW NORMAL
 Manufacture of passenger car tires last year was 18 million. It should have been 30 million.
 Manufacture of big tires is today the most unfinished business of the whole ware production program. The capacity to manufacture enough tires just doesn't exist, though War Production Board and Defense Plant Corporation are still authorizing tire factory additions and new facilities to bring produc- tlon nearer requirements.
 Lack of heavy duty tire manufac- turing capacity is further augment ed by shortages of carbon black, rayon and cotton cord for tires. and by capacity to make enough carbon black and cord. Apparently no one foresaw or planned adequately to meet CnlS demand.
 The one bright spot in the picture is that there is and will be enough synthetic rubber!
 This is pretty much in the nature of a lucky break. When the syn thetic rubber production program was planned, the greatest possible foreseeable demand was for 672,- 900 tons a year. Actually, 763,OO0 tons were produced in 1944. Sched- uled production for this year is 930,000 tons and for 1946 is HOO, GOO tons. This production of nearly double the planned output is due solely to refinements in process and the ability of the plants to produce far beyond rated capacity.
 The shortage of big tires, in spite of an adequate supply of synthetic rubber. is due entirely to an inabil- ity to foreSee how many heavy duty military-type tires would be needed. Losses of rubbcr-bo vehicles in bcachhead operations, long truck supply lines in France, operation Of trucks on 24-hour schedules, excess siVe destruction of ''run-flat" tires which have to keep going even after the castings have been punctured by bullets or flax fragments buried in mud, the greater need for motorized equipment in Pacific operations moving far faster than had been anticipated all these things for which there was no previous exper- fence on which to base estimates of requirements contributed to tho shortage.
 TWENTY SEVEN MILLION
 1945 TIRE GOAL
 Tires have been produced in numbers far beyond any record set before the war. In 1889 approxi- mately eight million heaVy-duty truck. bus and aviation tires were produced; in 1944, 16 million. But the scheduled demand for 1945 is 27 million and for 1946 may go as high as 32 million. The hope is that by 1946 a start may be made at catch ing up on back requirements for the civilian economy.
 In December of last year the War Production Board began to step up heavy-duty tire production capa- city beyond previously stepped-up capacity. First was a $100, 900 O00 ex- pansion program within existing walls" intended to produce an ad- ditlonal eight or nine million tires. Then in late January a $7000O, 900 new plant construction program was begun. Thirty-five new facilities have been announced up to mid- March, and the end of this expan- sion Is not yet in sight. When it is, there will be capacity to produce an additionl six million tires. All this new capacity will not come into production before 1946.
 If at first glance 1t looks as though this were corresponding the industry beyond any possible post war use, that isn't quite the picture. So low is the worlds stock of tires that 1t may be three years after the end of the war before enough new tires can be built to equip all the old vehicles still running, all the new vehicles that will have to be made and restock the dealers empty shelves.