P.M. sees future for wool in U.S.

Press, 14 November 1977, Page 1

P.M. sees future for wool in U.S.

From MAN LAMBERT. NZPA correspondent

Orlando, Florida New Zealand wool will make a strong comeback in the United States carpet industry in the next two or three years, the Prime Minister (Mr Muld o o n ) forecast on Saturday. He made his prediction at Disney World, Orlando, after arriving from Georgia. Mr Muldoon spent Friday ' in President Carter’s home state discussing the carpet trade and inspecting a carpet-making facility using New Zealand wool yarn. The factory is turning out carpet squares with a newly developed, com-puter-linked machine that prints the design rather than weaving it, as is done with conventional equipment, and at a much lower price. Mr Muldoon said in an interview that he believed the new process would lead to a substantial increase in New Zealand

wool sales in the United States.

He said that officials of Milliken and Company, of Le Grange, Georgia, had given him projections of consumption of New Zealand wool over the next

three years. “I cannot disclose what they are but they represent a very substantial increase in the use of our wool,” he said. The firm was talking to the New Zealand Wool Board about getting forward quotes for wool rather than buying in on a straight auction basis, Mr Muldoon said. “One of the things that has forced wool out of the American market has been the auction system.” Mr Muldoon said that after a manufacturer in Orlando had quoted a price to his customer the price of New Zealand wool had often gone up sharply, making it impossible for the manufacturer to sell at a profit.

Mr Muldoon said a combination of forward prices for specific wool grades and the use of the new carpet-making technique would put New Zealand back into the American carpet trade. He said the Georgia

company was making high-quality 80/20 per cent synthetic carpets at a price that was within range of synthetic carpet* produced by conventional methods. The United States was a major market for New Zealand wool for many years but sales had plunged in recent years because of high wool prices and cheaper synthetics. Mr Muldoon described the prospect of a turnround in sales as “exciting.” He brought up the carpet trade in talks earlier this week with President Carter, noting that wool was a renewable resource unlike most oil-based synthetics and that increasing the use of wool would fit in with the President’s energy policy. Mr Muldoon made the point as part of New Zealand’s campaign to get the United States to reduce or eliminate the tariff on wool yarn imports.