N.Z. wool still sought by Japanese industry

Press, 8 January 1983, Page 12

N.Z. wool still sought by Japanese industry

By

BRUCE ROSCOE

E in Tokyo

Japanese wool importers, whose buying spree last year saw Japan become New Zealand’s biggest wool market, appear still to be indicating a preference for New Zealand wool against that of other suppliers. According to the latest figures of the International Wool Secretariat’s Tokyo office, wool imports from Australia, Japan's biggest supplier of the commodity, declined in the July-November, 1982, period by an average of 37 per cent a month over the volume bought in the same period in 1981.

Purchases from South Africa fell by as much as 40 per cent in some months.

Import levels from New Zealand have dropped by 12 to 15 per cent, but the rate of decline is the lowest of producer countries selling to Japan and the levels are still above those of the 1980-81 (July-June) season.

The wool secretariat’s office says this means the Japanese market for New Zealand wool remains in a growth stage and that-the relatively lower rate of decrease in imports shows that the wool is maintaining its competitiveness.

Last season Japan bought 269.413 bales of New Zealand wool for SNZI22 million, a 69 per cent increase over the value of the previous season’s sales. It has alreadv bought 103.327 bales from New Zealand in the last July-November period.

If the remaining monthly

volumes hold firm or increase, Japan may again become New Zealand’s best wool customer.

In spite of this optimism, a major Japanese buyer of New Zealand wool, Kanematsu Gosho, Ltd, is pessimistic on prospects for growth in New Zealand wool sales. Mr Koichiro Chikamoto, formerly Kanematsu’s top Australian wool buyer and now a managing director of the trading house, told the last New Zealand-Japan businessmen’s council meetings in Tokyo that the heavy inflow of low-priced synthetic fibres from South Korea and Taiwan presented a threat to wool.

He said synthetic fibres occupied a share of more than 80 per cent of the 75 to 80 million square metres of carpet Japan produced each year. In the first naif of last year, the share had risen to 86 per cent'. The share wool held was only 7 to 9 per cent.

"Recently, non-combustible. synthetic fibres have been introduced, and home-washable synthetic carpets are now in fashion. Wool carpet is challenged by synthetic carpet, not only in price, but also in quality,” he said. Mr Chikamoto has advised New Zealand exporters that one way to make wool more competitive is to cut freight costs by adopting high and super high-density packing methods though he admits the effect this packing has on wool quality is yet unknown in Japan.

•The New Zealand Wool Board believes Japanese industry is regarding New’ Zealand more as an alternative, competitively priced source for finer wools, not just carpet wool, though it is concerned at Japan's erratic trough-peak-trough buying patterns.

The board believes, however, that the participation of three Japanese' banks in the board's credit facility to back its intervention in the home market is an indication of Japan’s confidence in New Zealand’s wool growing industry. The banks — Tokyo, Fuji and Mitsubishi — have put up more than 30 per cent of the SUSIOO million credit deal.

While acknowledging the threat to New Zealand woolfor foreign and Japan-made polyester and nylon carpets, the wool secretariat notes a diversifying market in Japan for New Zealand wool in the traditional eiderdown-like Japanese "futon" bedding. There are about 80 Japanese companies using the approved Wool Mark for their wool futons, against 10 firms in 1975, and the futon market is now consuming over 4000 tonnes of wool a year. A recent Japanese television documentary on the new futon phenomenon said the product had become so popular that fakes were appearing — apparently a good sign in Japan that the original product is in high demand — in at least one prefecture. The fakes, which first surfaced in Nara, were 64 per cent sponge.