POST-WAR WOOL DISPOSALS

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25741, 1 March 1949, Page 4

POST-WAR WOOL DISPOSALS

J.O. ACCOUNTS FOR 23 MONTHS TOTAL SURPLUS OF NEARLY £32,000,000 (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 28. A surplus of nearly £32,000,000, the profit for the United Kingdom and Dominion. Governments, has resulted from the disposal of the war-time surplus of Dominion wool up to June, 1947. This is revaled by the first accounts of United Kingdom-Dominions Wool Disposals, Ltd., the joint organisation set up by the Governments of Britain. Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand to carry out an orderly liquidation of the large war-time wool accumulations, simultaneously with the marketing of the current production. The accounts for 23 months from August 1, 1945, to June 30, 1947, show that the initial stock taken over by Joint Organisation, including 1945-46 clips, was 14,951.000 bales, at an orginal cost of £245,776,622 sterling. In June, 1947, the organisation held a stock of 4,515,000 bales at an orginal cost of £64,169,258 sterling, and the net profit resulting from the first 23 months of its activities was £31,926,383 sterling. Stock Reduction

Since June, 1947, stock liquidation has continued at a rapid rate and, if the current season’s selling programme is carried out as scheduled, the organisation’s stock in June next year will be down to about 1,375,000 bales, mostly in inferior sorts. A net estimate can be made of profits realised since June, 1947, but, as wool values have advanced, a further substantial profit is to be assumed. This result reflects the great post-war world demand for wool. An official comment on the result says: “The Joint Organisation is satisfied that the total amount of wool on offer has up to the present been sufficient to match the full capacity of mills, and to allow for the maintenance of trade stocks at a reasonable level. In a period of more stable general price levels, the adjustment of supply to demand which has been achieved would have kept wool prices more steady, although it would not have prevented some increase for Merino wool, because of its relative scarcity.”