WOOL SALES

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 65, 14 September 1936, Page 9

WOOL SALES

•AUSTRALIAN OPENING

COMPETITION AT SYDNEY

JAPAN LOOKS ON

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, September 1

With more than customary fuss and flurry, the 1936-37 Australian woolselling season opened in Sydney yesterday. Behind.the cosmopolitan crowd of buyers, the crush of spectators was so great and so noisy that policemen had to regulate traffic in the passages: It was a record gallery. No one knew quite What was going to happen. The troubles with Japan had put an anxious edge on the prospect. The anxiety was without reason. Strong buying on account of Bradford and the Continent (particularly .Germany and France) gave a bright opening to the sales.'* As expected,' the Japanese did not bid, but they were present in greater numbers than usual <md followed.the auctions intently. ■ Despite the ' lack of * bidding from them, the market showed recovery on the reduced figures ruling at the, closing Sydney-June sales, at which. Japan did not purchase. Compared with those closing auctions, prices for good wools were from 5 pel cent, to 7J per cent, higher, and average ,to inferior wools from 7J to 10 per cent.,higher. On the average, prices were on the same basis as the, rates which prevailed at the opening Sydney,auctions on September 2 last year. Compared with those sales, prices for best wools were par to 5 per cent, higher, average lines being unchanged, but inferior sorts 5 per cent, lower. The gratifying result of the opening sales was enhanced by the. fact that the wool was not of a highly-attractive nature, the bulk of it showing dust, and more or less vegetable fault. Of the 11,067 bales offered, 87 per cent, was sold at auction. That volume of saleupom. transactions showed that a good selling market was experienced. Providing competition is sustained, reason for satisfaction will exist at the level of prices ruling. Values for sheep have latterly been on an excellent level, and rates for. them, in combination, with the basis of new prices experienced for wool, will provide good returns for graziers. "The1 pessimism of past months should disappear," said one agent. "Japan will have to come in or lose a very considerable proportion of her trade. There, is only a limited quantity of wool on the market, and the surplus she has in, hand will not last long. Her competitors are bidding freely for the classes she usually buys. She cannot get the quantity of merino wool that she requires elsewhere than in Australia." The fate which broods over auction sales is an unpredictable thing, but it looki as though the Australian wool cheque will not be less than last year's —£50,000,000. That means prosperity. The buyers yesterday were a little noisier than usual, even without the assistance of the Japanese, who were silent arid glum. The Japanese worked hard, .making strange marks on the paper beside each bid, and observing with impenetrable faces the ups and downs, of the "market. At ordinary times they are fierce, cacophonous bidders for fine and medium wools. • . (