THE WOOL SITUATION

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVII, Issue 4473, 21 November 1933, Page 6

THE WOOL SITUATION

SURVEY OF THE POSITION WORLD SUPPLY CENTRES Tne Empire Marketing Board’s wool intelligence notes record the keen competition experience! at Australian selling centres this season. At the fifth series of London sales, which opened on September 19 } competition was good, and the prices obtained reflected the advances realised in Australia. Greasy merino and ctoss-breds at the opening wer-e about 10 per cent, above the prices realised in London toward the end of July, and these advances have been fairly well maintained. Shipments from Argentina and Uruguay in the season just ending ere expected to be 120 million lb., or more than 30 per cent, above the previous season’s figure. The value of the Argentine exports of wool during the 1932-33 season will show an increase of about five million gold pesos, of 15 per cent, over that of the 1931-32 season. Employment Improves Employment in the worsted, and carpet trades in Great Btritain in August shows only slight improvement on July, and the marked progress made during the early part of the year has slowed down in the last few months. Present activity is much greater than a year ago and the export trade in tops, yarnjs, and tissues continues well above last year’s level. Stocks of raw wool at the end of August in the principal ports of the United Kingom and in railway and canal depots in Yorkshire were about 10

per cent, lower than at the end of June. The available indices suggesij that activity in the wool textile industry in the United States of America and France has also improved and this is being reflected in heavier imports of the raw material. Increased retentions of wool in the current yeaT to date are also recorded in Germany, Italy, and Japan. The prices of semi-manufactures and tissues in the manufacturing centres have risen appreciably since the spring, reflecting the advance in raw wool prices. South African Notes The notes record a heavy mortality among the flocks in South Africa, and the Department of Agriculture, Pretoria, estimates that the 1933-34 season will amount to 280 - 000,0001 b., thus showing, as compared with the provisional production figure of last season, a reduction of 40,000,0001 b., or 13 per cent. There was a large carry-over at the end of 1931-32, but stocks were negligible at the end of 1932-33, and the new season has opened with hardly any old wool left for disposal. The agreement between the Union Government and Italian shipping lines for subsidising the services from South Africa to Marseilles and Genoa should result in encouragement of shipments of South African wool to ports served by those lines. In this connection it is of interest to note that Italian imports of wool from South Africa have trebled since 1928, an amounted to 32,000,000 lb in 1932; the union is now Italy’s second largest source of supply and Italy ds the union’s fifth best market for wool. Supply of Southern Hemisphere The greater pant of the imported wool is obtained direct from south-

ern hemisphere country, although considerable quantities are also imported through the United Kingdom and Belgium. Imports of wool grown in the United Kingdom are very small. A noticeable feature of the French import trtade is the small amount of New Zealand wool taken; direct shipments from that Dominion in t ecent years, according to the New Zealand trade returns, have averaged less than 20,000,0001 b. per annum, as against 70,000,0001 b. from Argentina and Uruguay, the other important sour'ces of crossbred wools. The French trade returns give no infomation as to the type of wool imported, but imports from Australia and South Africa which are almost exclusively merino wool, have constituted about 60 per cent, of the total in recent years, and it is therefore probable, having regard to the re-exports and exports from the other sources of supply, that about two-thirds of the total imports consist of merino wool.