BIKAM RUBBER ESTATE
BEST DIVIDEND SINCE 1926
THE twenty-eighth. ordinary general meeting of The Bikam Rubber Estate, Limited, was held no May 4th at 19 Fenchurch Street, E.C.
Mr. H. Eric Miller. (the chairman) said that the combination of a better average selling price with a reasonably high rate of per- missible export had made 1937 the best year experienced by the company since its enlargement in 1934, or indeed for many years before that, and the rate of dividend proposed was the highest since 1926.
Continuing, he said : The United States of America are such important consumers of many primary commodities that the depres- sion which they are now going through over there is having a very serious effect on our fortunes. Particularly in times like these one realises the value of international agreements for' the regulation of supplies, and, although it is not possible to make regulation instantly effective in ironing out the vagaries of rapidly fluctuating demand, we have the consolation of knowing that by gradual means supply is being adjusted to demand.
A year ago the American offtake of rubber was about 52,000 tons per month, and at the present time it is running at not much over 30,000 tons a month. A fair reading of the situation is that they were too optimistic this time last year and are taking too pessimistic a view now, because the actual using up of tyres and other materials made from rubber is proceeding all the time on a much steadier scale.
The world is divided up into different national and political units but in the economic sphere these separate units are bound up with one another very much as the links in a chain. Weakness and deterioration in One link has its repercussions on all the others, and this is particularly the case with the major world commodities. The fact that rubber in common with tea, tin and a few other primary commodities, enjoys the benefits of international regulation does not immunise us from the effects of depression in the value of other Primary commodities, and for the wellbeing of our own industry we want to see, above all, a recovery of confidence and the will to show progressive enterprise.
Although the immediate present is not too cheerful for rubber growers or other primary producers, we have weathered several Periods like this in the short life of the industry and can have con- fidence that brighter conditions are in store for us.
The report was unanimously adopted.
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