Radical Change In Wool Handling Soon

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31383, 31 May 1967, Page 19

Radical Change In Wool Handling Soon

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright)

SYDNEY, May 30.

Two British shipping container groups have presented an ultimatum to the Australian Federal Government and the wool industry which is certain to cause radical changes in Australian methods of wool handling and shipment, the “Australian Financial Review” reported.

It is said the groups have told the Government and the industry that they will require the establishment of centralised highdensity wool dumping facilities at mainland capital-city ports.

The cost of establishing the dumps has been estimated about 13 million dollars. The Government and industry have also been told that unless brokers are prepared to agree by June 30 to establish the new dumping arrangements, the shipping groups themselves will proceed to do so.

The two groups directly involved are Overseas Containers, Ltd., and Associated Container Transportation, Ltd.

They will begin an integrated, fully containerised shipping service between Australia and the United Kingdom in 1969. The first hint that container shipping methods would require radical alteration of Australian wool handling methods, was from European reports of meetings held overseas by the Secretary of the Department of Trade (Sir Alan Westerman). These reports said that Sir Alan Westerman had told European shipowners that the Government was anxious to reduce the multiple handling of wool, which was a costly feature of present marketing and shipping methods. After receipt of a letter from the Department of

Trade early in May, which made it plain that the department was concerned lest the economies promised—but not demonstrated by container and other unit shipping methods should be frustrated by uneconomic wool-handling methods at the Australian end, the brokers were virtually faced with making a decision to introduce centralised high - density wool

dumping at a cost of sl3m or seeing this section of the wool industry taken over completely by the two British shipping groups. The attitude of the Department of Trade in this matter is fairly clear-cut—conven-tional dumping of the Australian wool clip for export involves an expenditure annually of between ssm and s6m and the department wants Australians rather than overseas interests to do the work.