BIKAM RUBBER ESTATE
DIVIDEND OF 5 PER CENT.
THE twenty-ninth ordinary general meeting of the Bikam Rubber Estate, Limited, was held on May loth at t9 Fenchurch Street, E.C.
Mr. H. Eric Miller (the chairman) said: The year 1938 was a disappointing one for rubber producers, who had to face both an unsatisfactory market and the lowest average permissible export percentage of any year since the introduction of the Rubber Regulation Scheme.
For 1937 our average sale price was 9.39d. per lb. London landed equivalent ; for 1938 it was 8.62d. per Ib., and the realisa- tion of that figure was assisted by some forward sales at good prices, coupled with the fact that our financial resources enabled us to hold off the market a substantial weight of rubber whilst the price was unduly low and bide our time to sell it at a more reasonable figure. The 1938 crop accounted for was 3,143,953 lbs., compared with 4,686,709 lbs. for 1937.
The production of a smaller crop had, however, one advantage, since it permitted of labour, which would otherwise have been needed for tapping, being used to speed up the cultivation programme.
The year's trading resulted in a credit balance of £31,659, which is only 4-zoths of the corresponding figure for 1937.
Re our holding in Universal Rubber Paviors, Limited, progress in the use of rubber as a road-surfacing material is necessarily slow, particularly at a time like the present, when the activities of the country are so largely devoted to our defence programme.
It is generally recognised by the competent authorities that the stretches of road paved with rubber-capped blocks by Universal Rubber Paviors, Limited, of which Lombard Street in the City, and Cornmarket in Oxford are the most complete examples, repre- sent an outstanding achievement in road construction. Although the first cost is higher than that of other road-surfacing materials, it may reasonably be claimed that such rubber-surfaced roads will prove to be truly economic, added to which they possess other specific advantages even under the heaviest traffic conditions, and we are not unhopeful that further orders will follow in due course.
The dividend of 5 per cent., less Income Tax, which we are recommending is only half that of the previous year, but is none the less welcome, having regard to general conditions affecting our industry.
The report was unanimously adopted.
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