Indices of American Manufacturing Output (1939 = 100)

United States production of steel, rubber, and aluminum doubled during the war years.  Whereas manufacturing output for aircraft, ships, and munitions rise 1800 to 3800%.  The consumer economy pivoted smartly to a war footing.

The Six Measures

The six measurements shown above offer a broadscale picture of the United States industrial response to the war effort. Aircraft production increased to 2805 percent of 1939 levels, munitions by 2033 percent, shipbuilding by 1710 percent, aluminum by 474 percent, rubber by 206 percent, and steel by 197 percent. These numbers reflected most aspects of the US industrial capability during the war.

Rubber Tells the Story

Rubber of these six measures is the most mundane item. However, its story pertaining to the US’ industrial response covers the gamut of how the US response. None of the major belligerents were self-sufficient in rubber and only the Japanese had a steady supply after its conquest of Malaya and the Netherlands Indies. The US lost 90 percent of its prewar natural rubber supply source.

The Rubber Reserve Company

Prior to the US entry into WWII strategic material vulnerabilities were identified and rubber was one of them. At President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s direction, the Rubber Reserve Company (RRC) was established. The RRC set objectives for stockpiling rubber, allocating rubber reserves, conserving the use of rubber in tires by setting speed limits, and collecting scrap rubber for reclamation. The US entry into WWII saw a 1,000,000-ton rubber stockpile with a consumption rate of 600,000 tons per year. 

Synthetic History

Rubber synthesizing became an industrial focal point upon Britain imposing export restrictions on natural rubber from British Malaya in 1922. Germany, the US, and the Soviet Union all initiated synthetic rubber research. Germany’s I. G. Farben developed the first breakthrough called Buna, (“bu” for butadiene and “na” for natrium, the chemical symbol for sodium). I.G. Faben further discovered in 1929 that Buna S (butadiene and styrene polymerized in an emulsion), when compounded with carbon black, was significantly more durable than natural rubber. (1) The US would base their synthetic rubber research on Buna S.

(1) American Chemical Society National Historic Chemical Landmarks. U.S. Synthetic Rubber Program. http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/syntheticrubber.html (accessed March 3, 2023).

The RRC coordinated the government, academia, and corporate research and development into a synthetic rubber. The four cooperating corporations agreed to share patent and technical information under the RRC umbrella. In March 1942 their collective efforts resulted in GR-S (Government Rubber-Styrene).  In 1942 a total manufacturing output of 2,241 tons of GR-S synthetic rubber was produced. By 1945, the US manufacturing output increased to 920,000 tons per year of synthetic rubber, 85 percent of which was GR-S rubber.

Indices of American Manufacturing Output (1939 = 100) Data

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Source:

Milward, Alan S. “War, Economy, and Society, 1939-1945.” Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979, https://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-american-economy-during-world-war-ii/
Tassava, Christopher. “The American Economy during World War II”. EH.Net Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Whaples. February 10, 2008

https://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-american-economy-during-world-war-ii/

See Table 2

https://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-american-economy-during-world-war-ii/

Other Economic Indices Data Links

Relative Productivity Ranking Of World War II Foes

German vs. USSR Volume of Industrial Production, 1940

Allies to Axis GDP Ratios 1938-1945

Real National Product of UK, US, USSR, and Germany, 1937-45

US Federal Spending and Military Spending During WW2

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