SYNTHETIC FIBRES

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30767, 3 June 1965, Page 18

SYNTHETIC FIBRES

New Threat To Wool In Italy Man-made fibres are posing a fresh and serious threat to wool in Italy, one of the world’s major wool consuming countries, according to a report from Rome. Long a substantial and varied producer of man-made fibres, Italy is only now becoming a big user of them herself. Faced with rising production costs and competition abroad, Italian fibre makers are now concentrating on the domestic market. They are being helped in this in some degree by the Italian Government. Petrol refining in Italy, with its associated petro-chemical industries producing raw materials for synthetic fibres, is largely in the hands of a Government corporation. Italy’s biggest wool textile mill, Lanerossi, was taken over recently by this corporation and a large firm of garment manufacturers has also been absorbed, thus giving the Government corporation a straight through pipeline for synthetic fibres. Production Soars Industrial leaders say Lanerossi is already using substantially more man-made fibres. The production of artificial fibres, such as rayon, has trebled since 1948. but the production of newer synthetics has soared more than 300 times. The problems facing the Italian synthetic fibre industry are not a cause for pleasure among wool’s supporters as the Italian wool textile industry, the world’s biggest exporter of wool products, faces basically the same difficulties arising from rising wages and social' benefits changes. Wool textile leaders claim wool’s strongest weapon in the coming struggle promises to be Woolmark, the quality symbol denoting pure virgin wool.

Lerna Defending.—The British Open golf champion, Tony Lema, will defend his title at Royal Birkdale in July. The United States Masters champion, Jack Nicklaus, and former Australian winners, Peter Thomson and Kel Nagle, have already said they would be competing.