Abstract
STAGNATION of trade in the year 1921 is responsible for a situation in the American dyestuff industry resembling, in many respects, that which prevailed in this country. Firms engaged in the manufacture of coal-tar derivatives numbered 201, of which 74 produced colouring-matters with an output of 39,000,000 lb., while the sales exceeded 47,000,000 lb. Thus the domestic consumption of that year was in part supplied from the large stocks carried over from the previous year's abnormally high production. Nevertheless, it is satisfactory to note that progress was made in the direction of a wider range, many dyes of greater complexity and more specialised application being produced and marketed for the first time in the United States; although such materials do not make substantial additions to the bulk of production, they are essential factors in the development of a flourishing domestic industry. Further encouragement follows from the circumstance that in the year 1914 the United States imported nearly 46,000,000 lb. of dyes and produced only 6,000,000 lb., almost entirely from German intermediates. There are still requirements which have to be met from foreign sources, however, 3,914,036 lb. being imported in 1921, principally from Germany (48 per cent.) and Switzerland (41 per cent.); while this quantity exceeds by 511,454 lb. the amount imported in 1920, the average price has fallen from 1-7 dollars for that year to 1-3 dollars for 1921. Simultaneously, the price of domestic dyes has fallen from an average of 1.08 dollars per lb. in 1920 to 83 cents in 1921. From an American standpoint, the most disturbing feature of the }'ear under review is the diminution of exports, the value of which has fallen from 29,833,591 dollars in 1920 to 6,270,139 dollars in 1921; the total exports thus fell below those of the year 1917, when the first considerable expansion of the domestic dye-manufacturing industry from pre-war dimensions was noted.
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Current Topics and Events. Nature 110, 426–428 (1922). https://doi.org/10.1038/110426a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/110426a0