DEMAND FOR GLYCERINE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10140, 10 November 1910, Page 6

DEMAND FOR GLYCERINE.

Some years ago, when the large barrage of the Nile was being built atAssouan, the users of Portland cement were surprised to discover how greatly the price of the material was increased by the extra demand from Egypt. It would seem that now another very different commodity is likely to be affected by a similar demand in another part of the world. in the cutting of the great canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific at Panama a huge amount of rock blasting is certain to bo required. For this purpose a. large quantity of dynamite will bo demanded. And for the manufacture of that dynamite it seems likely that the world's supply of glycerine will be taxed to the utmost. Already ,without this demand, the supply of glycerine is anything but abundant. In consequence of extravagant competition in the soap trade, and simultaneous increase in the price of the raw material, tallow and fat, owing to Australian droughts, the soap manufacturers have been decreasing their output, and there has accordingly been a decreased supply of soapi lees, from which glycerine is pro- ' duced. This of itself has shortened the supply. At the same time the demand for dynamite in South Afi rica has greatly increased now that, by improved processes, the lower grades of gold quartz are, being made to pay. Already under these circumstances, within the last year or so, glycerine has nearly doubled in price, and with any further demand from Panama there is no saying what its value mav rise to.