GERMANY’S BIG WOOLBUYING

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 29 September 1927, Page 4

GERMANY’S BIG WOOLBUYING

IAROBABLY no great concern is felt in this country with regard to Germany's economic recovery from the effects of the Great War. One indication of it, however, in which at least our sheepfarmers may take some interest is to be found in the activity of German woolbuyers in Australia. Noting this,. a Sydney exchange just to hand says that the keen demand for wool by Germany experienced so far this season is a reflection of the manufacturing conditions which early August mail reports indicated as existing in that quarter. Machinery requirements were keeping abreast of raw material supplies. In order to secure tbeir needs, millmen had placed extensive orders for semi-manu-factures in Great Britain for delivery up to as much as three months ahead. That dearth of supplies is the force behind German bidding. From September to the end of May last, imports of the staple into Germany ran into 327,500,0001 b, the equivalent of 1,023,437 bales of Australian weight. The total was 50 per cent, greater than the quantity for the same period of 1925-26. The expansion carries some notable features. German export business in tops for the first six months of this year exhibited an increase, but her foreign business in yarns was less. Her export sales, of woollen fabrics advanced 11 per cent. On the whole her foreign sales advanced, but their limited increase does not account for the special extension in her wool consumption. The chief cause of its increase has evidently been a decided improvement in her home trade. To experience a marked advance in business within her own borders Germany’s prosperity in all her general industrial life must have been the factor. Apparently her masses are enjoying better times than they did some while ago. She has had a somewhat chequered career since the war, experiencing a boom, followed by economic chaos, due to the debacle in the value of the German mark. Her recovery since that time has been steady, and there is no reason to assume that her recent progress has not been sound. It may not be that Germany’s so largely increased purchases in Australia will mean a like experience here in New Zealand when our sales open, for on the whole the wool we have to offer is of an entirely different class. At the same time, however, Germany’s strong buying in the Commonwealth will have absorbed an unexpectedly large proportion of the general supply of raw material- This can scarcely have any effect other than to improve the demand from other quarters for Dominion clips.