419

ANON., QUALITY PRODUCTS OF THE HO

HONG MILLS, MALAYAN TRIBUNE MEMENTO,
29 JANUARY 1932 (1932)
Anon., Quality Products of the Ho Hong Mills, Malayan Tribune Memento, 29
January 1932, National Archives, CO 273/582/3.
Ho Hong Oil Mills Ltd was just one of the many Chinese-owned Singapore
companies that processed coconuts for their oil and manufactured soap. Te frm
was owned by Lim Peng Siang (18721944), who, with his brother Lim Peng
Mao, operated the Ho Hong group of companies founded in 1904. In addition
to the processing of coconut oil/soap manufacture, the group had interests in
shipping, through the Ho Hong Steamship Co. Ltd; rice pot-boiling; the manu-
facture of cement via the Ho Hong Portland Cement Works Ltd; and banking,
through the Ho Hong Bank (1917), which in 1932 merged with the Chinese
Commercial Bank and the Oversea-Chinese Bank to form the Oversea-Chinese
Banking Corp. Siang was President of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Com-
merce (191316), a member of the Chinese Advisory Board (192141) and a
director of a number of public companies, including Central Engine Works Ltd
and Central Motors Ltd.
1
Notes
1. W. G. Huf, Te Economic Growth of Singapore: Trade and Development in the Twentieth
Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 147, 225, 459.
Copyright
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421
Anon., Quality Products of the Ho Hong Mills,
Malayan Tribune Memento, 29 January 1932 (1932)
Te Ho Hong Oil Mills (1931), Ltd., owns the largest coconut oil mills in the
Malay Peninsula. Te mills are situated on the South side of Havelock Road,
while the godowns for the storage of copra, oil in tins, etc., are on the North side
of Havelock Road with water frontage.
Te Company also acquired the Colonial Oil Mills, situate at Teck Guan
Street and Mohamed Sultan Road.
Te property owned by the Company at Havelock Road is about ten acres in
extent, while the actual area occupied by the oil-milling plant, tin-making plant,
cooperage plant, automatic oil flling plant, godowns for storage of copra, oil
cake, etc., is over three acres.
Te Havelock Road Mills is divided into three distinct units, each being
independent of the other. Two of these units are run on electrical energy while
the third is on steam power.
Te entire mills is in charge of a fully qualifed English engineer, who has
been with the predecessors of this Company for nearly 20 years.
Te quality of the oil produced is unique and at every exhibition in Malaya
where the Companys products were exhibited diplomas and medals have been
awarded to the Companys predecessors for the high quality of their products.
Coconut oil for local consumption is packed in tins of six, 14, and 28 katis
1

and in order to cope with the demand for such packing, the Company has its own
tin-making plant, capable of producing 100,000 tins of various sizes per month.
For export purposes the oil is packed either in steel drums or wooden bar-
rels. Te Company has its own cooperage plant capable of assembling together
12,000 barrels per month.
Te coconut oil is marketed under two trade marks Elephant with a Palm
Tree and the Palm Tree the former being known in the market as Elephant
Brand.
Special care is taken to see that the oil produced is clear, bright, and free from
all oleaginous matters while the free, fatty acid content is maintained at a very
low fgure, usually about l to two per cent.
Copyright
422 British Economic Development in South East Asia, 18801939: Volume 2
Te power plant consists of four units, totalling 800 h.p., and comprises a
steam unit of 300 h.p. and three electrical units aggregating 500 h.p.
Te capacity of the Havelock Road Mills is about 1,000 piculs of oil per day
while from the Colonial Oil Mills an output of about 120 piculs of oil per day
can be obtained. Owing to the trade depression only two units of the Havelock
Road Mills are in commission while the Colonial Oil Mills is not in operation.
Te major portion of the coconut oil produced is exported to Siam, Dutch
East Indies, and China. Te Company had at considerable sacrifce secured a
market for its oil in Europe, but owing
-
to the great diference in freight rates on
coconut oil between Ceylon and Europe and Singapore and Europe, it was not
found possible to compete with Ceylon coconut oil, the diference in freight
being about 30s. per ton of oil.
Te copra cake, or poonac, which is the residue from the copra afer the oil
has been expressed, has a very high value as a cattle foodstuf. It is packed in rolls
and exported to Europe in large quantities.
Te export of coconut oil from the Colony for the year 1930 was over
$2,300,000, practically all of which is exported by the Ho Hong Oil Mills.
Te import of coconut oil into Singapore is negligible, amounting to about
$6,000 during 1930.
It is interesting also to note that Malaya produces about 100,000 tons of
copra per annum.
THE SOAP FACTORY.
Te Ho Hong Soap Factory, Ltd., is situate at Havelock Road, adjoining the Ho
Hong Oil Mills. /
Te factory is arranged in two sections the household soap section and the
toilet soap section.
Te principal machinery in the household soap section comprise two large
circular soap kettles of a capacity of 40 tons each, both ftted with closed and
open steam coils for boiling soap with direct and indirect steam; a jacketed cir-
cular soup crutcher
2
of 14 tons capacity, a soap cooling machine, soap forms,
soap dryer, soap cutter, oil and soap pumps, etc.
Te capacity of the plant is 12,000 cases of household soap per month and
this output can be easily doubled at a very small additional expenditure should
the necessity for expansion of the factory arise.
Te principal machinery in the toilet soap section comprise two circular
soap kettles of 11 tons capacity each, both ftted with closed and open steam
coils, a soap drying plant, mixer, soap plodder,
3
milling machine, box and carton
making machinery, etc.
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Anon., Quality Products of the Ho Hong Mills 423
Te capacity of the toilet soap plant is one ton of toilet soap per day of eight
hours.
Te household soap is chiefy made in bars of 2 lbs. each bar and in tablets
of various sizes.
Tese soaps are marketed under the following brands:
Elephant, Palm Tree, and Ho Hong, for the bar soap, and Elephant.
Dragon and Ho Hong for the soap in single or double tablets.
Prior to the Company producing household soap, the market price of the
best grade Europe-made soap was $7 per case of 20 bars, but to-day the price of
the same soap is reduced to $4.80 per case. Te Companys Palm Tree brand
soap, specially manufactured for the people of Malaya, because it is made purely
from vegetable oils, is retailed at only $4 per case Te quality is as good as, if not
better than, the best Europe-made bar soap. An additional advantage of purchas-
ing Palm Tree brand soap is that each bar is wrapped in a specially waxed paper
to keep of the dust from the soap, while the net weight is 2 lb. per bar. In view
of the fact that Palm Tree brand soap is made from vegetable oils only, the
Mohamedans and Indians are able to use this soap freely.
Te toilet soap produced has not sold as well as might be expected owing to
the prejudice against locally produced soap, but afer considerable propaganda
work this prejudice is being gradually overcome.
[]
Practically all the raw materials used for the manufacture of household and toilet
soap have to be imported with the exception of coconut oil and palm oil.
Copyright
Copyright
425
ANON., WORLDS BIGGEST TIN SMELTERS.
GROWTH OF STRAITS TRADING CO., THE
SINGAPORE FREE PRESS EXHIBITION
SUPPLEMENT (1932)
Anon., Worlds Biggest Tin Smelters. Growth of Straits Trading Co., Te Singapore
Free Press Exhibition Supplement, 2 January 1932, National Archives, CO 273/582/3.
Te following text provides a description of the Straits Trading Co., the opera-
tions of which are discussed in the thematic introduction. Te plant at Pulau
Brani was destroyed prior to the Japanese Occupation in February 1942, but
was rebuilt afer the Second World War. Today, the frm is an investment holding
company owned by the Tecity Group with interests in tin mining and smelting
(through its subsidiary Malaysia Smelting Corp.), real estate (via Straits Devel-
opments Ltd), hospitality (Rendezvous Hospitality Group), advertising and
fund management.
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Copyright
427
Anon., Worlds Biggest Tin Smelters. Growth
of Straits Trading Co., The Singapore Free Press
Exhibition Supplement (1932)
Te Straits Trading Co., Ltd., Singapore, was founded in the year 1887, with a
capital of $150,000, to acquire the business of tin ore smelters and general mer-
chants carried on at that time by Messrs. James Sword and Herman Muhlinghaus
in the States of Sungei Ujong and Selangor.
Te frst reduction of the ore was done by a small reverberatory furnace
1
in
a shed at Teluk Anson, Perak, but the results were very disappointing. Shortly
aferwards, however, the Company erected smelting works at Pulau Brani, Sin-
gapore, and they exist there to this day, though changes out of all recognition
from their original layout and in regard to type of plant installed.
Te Company possesses a second smelting plant at Butterworth, Province
Wellesley, which was originally started in 1902 to keep pace with increasing
business. Tis plant was completely modernised a few years ago.
Te Companys capital has been increased from $150,000 at its forma-
tion by successive stages to $15,000,000 authorised ($9,000,000 paid up).
Since then, by refunds of capital to shareholders, the fgures have respectively
become $1,500,000 authorised and $900,000 paid up. Tis was coincident with
a steadily growing business, and with important developments and progress in
metallurgical practice that give the Company to-day frst place among the tin
smelters of the world.
Te primitive Chinese methods of tin-ore smelting in small shaf fur-
naces, with charcoal as fuel and reducing agent, were replaced by smelting in
small reverberatory furnaces. Te latter in their turn gave way to large mod-
ern regenerative reverberatory furnaces, gas fred, with modern fume recovery
attachments. Tis progress in smelting practice has resulted in larger recoveries
of metal from the ore, with beneft alike to the tin mining industry and the
prosperity of Malaya in general.
Te Companys properties cover an area of over seventy acres, and the
combined smelting plants at Pulau Brani and Penang are the largest and most
Copyright
428 British Economic Development in South East Asia, 18801939: Volume 2
up-to-date in the world. Tey have a total smelting capacity up to 60,000 tons of
refned tin per annum.
Te product of the Straits Trading Co., Ltd.s smelteries is the world-
renowned Straits Tin, the ore supplies coming mainly from the Federated
Malay States. Te following table shows the total exports of tin and tin in ore
from the Federated Malay States for a period of thirty years:
Years. Tin Piculs. Tin in Tin Total Exports
Ore Piculs. Piculs. Tons.
1901 364,364 420,879 785,243 46,741
1902 335,601 445,267 780,868 46,480
1903 345,589 494,158 839,647 49,979
1904 333,044 533,193 853,237 50,966
1905 308,288 548,372 856,660 50,992
1906 306,746 510,036 816,782 48,618
1907 234,157 579,479 813,636 48,431
1908 147,608 708,457 854,065 50,837
1909 180,585 638,301 818,886 48,743
1910 166,316 570,583 736,899 43,863
1911 167,422 574,276 741,698 44,149
1912 174,784 638,688 813,472 48,421
1913 85,502 756,627 842,129 50,127
1914 61,179 762,730 823,909 49,042
1915 73,405 712,265 785,670 46,766
1916 80,245 656,770 737,015 43,870
1917 90,966 578,231 669,197 39,833
1918 74,741 553,074 627,815 37,370
1919 86,298 534,220 620,518 36,936
1920 67,884 519,020 586,904 34,935
1921 76,708 502,724 579,432 34,490
1922 98,852 493,954 592,806 35,286
1923 98,384 534,135 632,519 37,650
1924 113,267 626,656 739,923 44,043
1925 123,620 647,940 771,560 45,926
1926 92,390 679,519 771,909 45,947
1927 63,553 813,067 876,620 52,180
1928 49,044 991,461 1,040,505 61,935
1929 16,706 1,109,598 1,126,304 67,042
1930 8,124 1,034,567 1,042,691 62,065
[A Straits picul equals 133 1/3 lbs. or 16.80 piculs equals 1 ton].
It will be noted that the introduction of modern methods of tin smelting has
gradually resulted in the bulk of the ore being exported to the European smelt-
ers at Singapore and Penang for conversion into refned tin. Te Straits Trading
Co., Ltd. smelt the preponderating part of the output of tin ore from Malaya,
with the result that it is the most important seller of Straits refned tin in the
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Anon., Worlds Biggest Tin Smelters. Growth of Straits Trading Co. 429
East. Te following statement of its sales of Straits tin at Singapore and Penang
will be of interest:
Year. Tons.
1907
40,205
1908
47,768
1909
40,297
1910
35,346
1911
38,252
1912
36,489
1913
43,017
1914
41,718
1915
47,249
1916
43,504
1917
37,887
1918
36,241
1919
37,315
1920
28,294
1921
27,759
1922
39,690
1923
45,514
1924
48,160
1925
45,856
1926
41,014
1927
48,042
1928
59,518
1929
62,372
1930
52,137
Te Straits Trading Co. Ltd.s head of ce is at Singapore, and it possesses buying
agencies throughout the whole of Malaya, at which points the ore is received
from producers for transport to the Companys smelting plants. Te technical
and commercial organisations of the Company are of a high order, and improve-
ments in existing smelting method and processes by metallurgical research are
constantly aimed at.
Te uses of tin are so well known as to require no comment here. Straits
Tin is world-renowned, and fnds consumers in all parts of the globe, the big-
gest demand coming from the United States of America.
Te Straits Trading Co., Ltd.s brand of Straits Tin analyses over 99.85%
pure and possesses the physical characteristics so much desired by consumers; its
sofness is unexcelled and it is uniform in quality. It is shipped in ingots weigh-
ing 100lbs.
Copyright
Notes to pages 40660 483
4. ends: an end is the top or bottom of a can.
5. knurling: small ridges or grooves.
6. chuck: a clamp that holds a tool.
7. mandrels: A mandrel is a metal/wood rod or bar around which material, such as metal
or glass, may be shaped.
Anon., Quality Products of the Ho Hong Mills
1. katis: a unit of mass equal to 604.8 grammes.
2. crutcher: a mixing machine.
3. soap plodder: used to extrude soap into ropes, which are then cut and pressed.
Anon., Worlds Biggest Tin Smelters. Growth of Straits Trading Co.
1. reverberatory furnace: a metallurgical or process furnace that isolates the material being
processed from contact with the fuel, but not from contact with combustion gases.
Anon., Tampenis Cement Tile Works
1. Boyanese: people from Bawean, an Indonesian island located approximately 150 km
north of Surabaya in the Java Sea.
Anon., Steel Castings for all Purposes. Machinery Making in the
Tropics
1. cupola furnace: a cylindrical shaf type of blast furnace used for re-melting metals, usually
iron, before casting.
2. converter: a furnace in which pig iron is converted into steel by the Bessemer process.
Arnold, On Cotton Fabrics and the Cotton Industry of Burma
1. lungyis: cloth, ofen brightly coloured, which is used as a piece of clothing.
2. skeins: a length of thread or yarn wound in a loose long coil.
3. pasos: a form of sarong.
4. thingans: small robes.
5. piece-goods: fabrics made and sold in standard lengths.
6. tea-cosy: a covering for a teapot to keep the contents hot.
Morris, Te Lacquerware Industry of Burma
1. orpiment: arsenic trisulfde, As2S3, a yellow mineral used as a pigment.
2. realgar: a sof orange-red arsenic ore, As2S2, used in pyrotechnics and tanning and as a
pigment.
Copyright