By Kartini Saparudin written on 01-Jun-2007
National Library Board Singapore

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The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company (SS) Limited was incorporated as a private limited company in Singapore on 1 October 1919. The parent company of Firestone Singapore Private Ltd., Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, was founded in 1900 as a worldwide corporation that manufactures, markets, produces and purchases natural rubber. It was in 1919 when its founder, Harvey S. Firestone, organised a subsidiary in Singapore to purchase, grade, store and ship rubber to the United States. Previously, the Company was operating under different business entities for several years. A small Firestone rubber purchasing office was set up in Singapore in 1915 to offset the export restrictions placed by the British government on rubber.

Early Days
Firestone faced many barriers to their rubber business during its early years. In the days leading to the Second World War, the British government placed embargoes on countries that were not their allies in the war. America was its only ally during the later stage of World War Two. Colonial governments in Ceylon and the Straits Settlements were informed that rubber could only be exported to British ports (Japan and Russia were the exceptions). In addition, its founder, Harvey Firestone, was also not allowed to procure more than 2,500 acres of land in the Philippines to start his own rubber plantations. Hampered by these restrictions and by his earlier failed attempts to obtain rubber from direct sources, he decided to safeguard his position by establishing his own buyer in Singapore. Goodyear Company in Singapore followed suit a year later. It was also around this time that the tyre industry began to realise their need to "buy" rubber on the spot and to "view" the products for themselves. This departed from the former practice of depending on local resident firms as buyers' representatives. With these changes, Singapore began to rival London as the world centre of the rubber trade.

The Hongkong & Shanghai Bank Chambers building was Firestone's early headquarters. The rubber factory-cum-godown was located at the junction of Geylang Road and the Kallang River. Their main activity was the milling of imported Indonesian wet-slab rubber into blanket crepes. To Katong residents, whose main access to the city was via Mountbatten Road and Geylang, the distinctive odour emitting from the rubber slabs in the vicinity was a familiar smell. There was considerable expansion during the period 1919-1941. Rubber-buying warehouses opened in large cities in Malaya, and extended to Sumatra. In 1918, for example, Firestone purchased 5,200 tonnes of rubber. Firestone also made land acquisitions in the Tanglin district and built six houses for their staff. However, the Great Depression of 1929 adversely affected the rubber business in Singapore and resulted in the closure of warehouses outside Singapore, with the exception of one in Malacca. The changes that took place in 1930s, such as improvements in the transportation system, communication links, shipping facilities and means of marketing, allowed for the centralisation of rubber purchasing and processing in Singapore.

The War and After
The eruption of the Second World War brought the company's operations to a halt. The Firestone facility did not ship any rubber between 1942 to late 1945. Several of its British staff were also interned.  After the war, business began to pick up. In 1945, its properties in Malacca and Singapore were renovated and expanded. Business conditions returned to pre-war times although living conditions remained poor due to the shortage of consumer goods. While Malaya was fighting against the communist insurgency, Singapore was at the centre of the most sensational rubber boom that Asia had ever experienced. This boom reverberated across major rubber markets in the world. The Korean War had created a huge demand for rubber. The 1950s also saw increased sales of imported items from Malaya, Singapore and Borneo markets. This further fueled the demand for rubber. Demand soon outweighed supply, and as rubber prices soared, dealers began to panic. Harvey Firestone Jr. even declared that Southeast Asia would ruin itself if rubber prices did not return to normalcy. 

By 1960, Firestone Malaya Limited, a sister company, was formed with its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur and a branch in Butterworth, Province Wellesley. Both operations combined the rubber purchasing and warehouse units. In the 1960s, the Indonesia Confrontation led to a breakdown in trade relations between Indonesia and Singapore, which brought about a shortage of raw materials. This disagreement effectively terminated the milling activities of the company in Singapore. Several hundred workers were laid off. Nevertheless, it was estimated that the company bought over 4 million tonnes of rubber in the Far East over the past 60 years since 1962. 

Firestone was one of the largest producers, purchasers and users of natural rubber. It manufactured and marketed not only tyres for almost every type of vehicle but also nearly 40,000 other products in the fields of rubber, metals, plastics, textiles and chemicals. The Far East supplied rubber to Firestone plants in the United States and 25 other countries. As demand for rubber tyres and other rubber products increased throughout the world, rubber purchases and shipments from Firestone Singapore rose dramatically. In 1972, the Firestone sales branch moved from Kuala Lumpur to become part of the Singapore office. The Firestone Company remained a vital part of the Singapore rubber scene for more than 60 years.

Bridgestone-Firestone
On 1 January 1990, the Singapore office of Japan's Bridgestone Corporation merged with Firestone Singapore. This took place two years after Bridgestone's US$2.6 billion purchase of the American Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in 1988. The deal made the Tokyo-based Bridgestone the third largest tyremaker in the world at that time. The new company in Singapore, Bridgestone/ Firestone Singapore, was formed to buy natural rubber for its tyre-making affiliates in 18 countries. The merger is significant because Singapore was the location of Bridgestone's first overseas factory in 1963. Bridgestone Singapore ceased operations in 1980 following the Singapore's government lifting of tariff protection on locally-made tyres but it reemerged as this new entity. In February 1995, Bridgestone took full control of Bridgestone/Firestone Singapore Private Ltd and became Bridgestone Singapore Private Ltd.



Author
Kartini Saparudin



References
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Bridgestone completes procedures to take over control of Bridgestone/ Firestone Singapore Private Ltd. (1995, Februrary 12). Plastics and Rubber Weekly. Retrieved July 17, 2007 from Factiva database.

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(Call no.: RSING 380.1065595957 SIN)

Wood, G. A. (Ed.) (1967). American Association of Singapore 50th anniversary 1917-1967 (pp. 297-298). Singapore: The Association. 
(Call no.: RCLOS 369.25957 AME)



The information in this article is as valid as at 2007 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not unintended to an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.