AMERICAN WOOL NEEDS

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26319, 13 January 1951, Page 8

AMERICAN WOOL NEEDS

CONDITIONS LAID DOWN BY AUTHORITY SOME BUYERS IN N.Z. CONCERNED (New Zealand Press Association) ~ WELLINGTON, January 12. Woolbuyers in New Zealand have received from their American principals details of the wool needs of the United States for the current season, approximating 30.000.0001 b. clean basis. Some are not entirely happy about certain of the conditions laid down by the Commodity Credit Corporation, which is the purchasing authority. The corporation asks buyers to submit prices with delivery dates. This places buyers in the position of either having to buy forward—a risky proposition with the wool market in its present state —or to buy wool of* a specified style at a certain auction price and rely on the corporation to accept that price. What buyers would prefer is a series of firm bids from the corporation. Some disappointment is felt, too, that the Commodity Credit Corporation’s requirements in coarse wools do not coincide more with the type of crossbred wool in which New Zealand specialises—that is, within the 46-52 count. American requirements of the coarse wools appear to be confined to the 44 count and lower, comprising the coarsest of Romney wools of which there is relatively very little produced here.

In the higher grades the United States needs are a little more varied, so that the South Island auctions will probably feel the impact of American competition a little more than the North Island sales.