TYRE SUPPLIES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 71, 25 August 1947, Page 7

TYRE SUPPLIES

IMPROVEMENT NEXT YEAR With rubber supplies available from the Straits Settlements and Indo-China, there was every reason to believe that the manufacture of tyres would greatly improve next year, said Mr M. E. Fischer, a representative of the Michelin company, leading French tyre manufacturers, in an interview. Mr Fischer arrived in the Dominion recently in connection with the organisation and control aspect , of his company’s interests. The Michelin company has factories in Claremont (France), Stoke-on-Trent (England) and in Buenos Aires, but has withdrawn from the U.S.A. The output of the factories in Claremont, said Mr Fischer, was greater in tonnage now than it was at any time before the war. The position in France had been considerably improved by the restoration of the railways, and production was going fairly smoothly. One of the twin factories in Claremont had been completely destroyed during the war but was now completely rebuilt. Mr Fischer left,France at the end of last year and after calling at Egypt and Singapore went on to the company’s plantations in Indo-China, 60 miles from Saigon. Owing to the unsettled situation in Indo-China, Mr Fischer and his party were forced to carry tommy-guns on their journey from the city out to the plantations. Mr Fischer’s company is giving priority at the moment to the manufacture of heavy vehicle tyres, but with the expected improvement in the rubber supplies, will devote more time to the 'production of car tyres in 1948.