THE WOOL MARKET

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 98, 27 April 1935, Page 12

THE WOOL MARKET

JAPANESE DEMAND

The next London sales open on May 7. [ Germany is again buying wool and yarns j from Bradford, probably/ owing to the I Flench embargo on wool exports diverting the demand to Britain, states a recent J cablegram received in Australia. Her I purchases, however, do not approach the J scale of those in January.. and February, owing to financial limitations and restric- ' tions on raw material, which wool trades arc permitted to use t after April 1, ranging from.3o to 20 per centum for various sections. The general competition experienced in Sydney from Yorkshire, Japan, and all Continental countries indicated a widespread demand for the raw material, which augurs well for May and June sales. Fully. 85 per cent, of the wool which will be available for sale in the Commonwealth during the season has now been sold, Japanese inquiry at the auctions and for passed-in wools privately proved a notable feature. Japan is apparently not well supplied with raw material.' In 1934 her imports of wool totalling 585,484 bales we^re 24 per cent, less than in 1933. .During the past twelve months her exports of woollen fabrics were double the quantity of a year oefo're, reaching 20.230,000 square yards. Her shipments to India were over four times the value of the consignments she sent to that country in 1933. She also shipped larger supplies to Mancluikuo, Korea, Formosa. China, the Dutch East' Indies, and Egypt. Her foreign trade included limited quantities,, of mousseline de lame, and woollens consigned to Africa, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, . Norway, , North, and SouthAmerica. Australia, Hawaii, and New Zealand. She looks like becoming an important factor in export trade of the world as a whole, but in tlicf East her possibilities are great. With her low costs of manufacture, the selling price of her goods is more in keeping with Eastern purchasing power than the products of mills of the older world working under higher, manufacturing expenses. If Japan is in the future able to expand her business with China, possibilities for the sale of her woollen textiles are almost boundless, says Winchcombe, Carson, Ltd. Provided Australia, encourages her with a reasonable amount of balancing trade, the Commonwealth will, continue' to be her chief supplier of the necessary.,raw wool. Currency conditions ,in Europe are to an appreciable extent responsible for the improvement in Sydney, but an increased consumption of merino wool and prospects of diminished supplies,, due to the dry season in Australia, have also been an" important, influence. -