Rubber Industry

On Cambodia's oldest rubber plantation, the last remains of a once-great industry trickle slowly from the towering trees. The bitter scent of latex, which once made great fortunes here, fills the air in the aging forest. The Cambodian rubber industry, once among the world's most productive, is collapsing under the weight of poor management, corruption and little investment in new trees, analysts say.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., dealing with a 4-week-old strike, reported a loss of $48 million for the third quarter Thursday because of restructuring charges and higher raw material costs. Its sales rose to a company record for any quarter, however, and its shares climbed more than 15% in trading. The loss for the world's third-largest tire maker amounted to 27 cents a share for the July-September period, including $126 million, or 71 cents, in after-tax restructuring charges.

Harry Lyon Morris, 77, a Liberian delegate to the United Nations from 1959 to 1980 and an ambassador at large for Liberia in the 1970s. Morris was the son of John Lewis Morris, secretary of the interior and of public works in Liberia in the 1920s. He was a grandson of Ernest Lyon, a onetime U.S. minister to Liberia. Morris worked in the rubber industry from 1934 to 1980. He later became chief executive of Morris Rubber, a family company.

On Cambodia's oldest rubber plantation, the last remains of a once-great industry trickle slowly from the towering trees. The bitter scent of latex, which once made great fortunes here, fills the air in the aging forest. The Cambodian rubber industry, once among the world's most productive, is collapsing under the weight of poor management, corruption and little investment in new trees, analysts say.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., dealing with a 4-week-old strike, reported a loss of $48 million for the third quarter Thursday because of restructuring charges and higher raw material costs. Its sales rose to a company record for any quarter, however, and its shares climbed more than 15% in trading. The loss for the world's third-largest tire maker amounted to 27 cents a share for the July-September period, including $126 million, or 71 cents, in after-tax restructuring charges.

Malaysia, anxious to retain its position as the world's top producer of rubber, is revolutionizing the industry by scrapping antiquated techniques relying on excessive human labor in favor of innovative machines. Faced with low prices and a crippling shortage of workers as the young rush to the booming manufacturing sector, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has branded traditional rubber-tapping methods as "terribly inefficient" and called for modernization.

Mobay Corp., a subsidiary of Bayer USA Inc., said it has agreed to acquire Denka Chemical Corp. of Houston for an undisclosed sum. Denka, which has sales of nearly $100 million and employs about 400 workers, has plants in Houston; Duluth, Minn.; Carteret, N.J., and Little Ferry, N.J.

An Irvine man and his business partner were arrested Friday on suspicion of conspiring to ship chemicals that could be used to make nerve gas to Iran, in violation of the U.S. trade embargo. Prosecutors said Abdol Hamid Rashidian, an Iranian citizen living in Irvine, and Henry Joseph Trojack of Las Vegas conspired to ship impregnated alumina.

Hundreds and perhaps even thousands of years before Charles Goodyear discovered the vulcanization process that made commercial rubber viable, Mesoamerican peoples were carrying out a similar process to produce rubber artifacts for a broad variety of uses, two MIT researchers have found. By varying the amount of materials they added to raw rubber, Mesoamericans were able to produce bouncy rubber balls for the Mayas' ceremonial games, resilient rubber sandals and sticky material used to glue implements to handles, the research shows.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and the United Steelworkers union have reached a tentative agreement to end a two-week strike, but workers will remain on the picket lines until the deal is ratified. Union spokesman Curt Brown said Sunday that members will vote Thursday on the six-year agreement reached Saturday night. It would be the first long-term contract in the industry's history.

Harry Lyon Morris, 77, a Liberian delegate to the United Nations from 1959 to 1980 and an ambassador at large for Liberia in the 1970s. Morris was the son of John Lewis Morris, secretary of the interior and of public works in Liberia in the 1920s. He was a grandson of Ernest Lyon, a onetime U.S. minister to Liberia. Morris worked in the rubber industry from 1934 to 1980. He later became chief executive of Morris Rubber, a family company.

Peter Bauer, a Hungarian-born British economist who opposed development aid for poor countries as a waste of money, has died at age 86. Bauer, who became a life baron in 1982, died May 3 at his home in London, the House of Lords said. Before becoming a peer, the iconoclastic Bauer divided his professional life between the London School of Economics, where he was professor of economics, and his old Cambridge college, Gonville and Caius, where he was a fellow.

The Senate Finance Committee today completed action on a bill limiting imports of apparel and footwear but made no recommendation on whether it should be passed. The bill is supported by a majority of members of the House and Senate, but there is some question whether the margins are large enough to override a presidential veto. The Bush Administration opposes the bill, and President Bush's advisers say they will recommend a veto if it passes.