AUSTRALIAN WOOL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22400, 22 April 1936, Page 9

AUSTRALIAN WOOL

GROWERS' BETTER TIMES JAPANESE COMPETITION INTEREST IN SKIRTINGS In the course of a survey regarding the current regular wool-selling season of Australia, which is now drawing to a close, the Australian Mercantile, Land and Finance Company, Limited, Melbourne, points out that in a very firm market with keen competition, such as has been experienced this season, the buyer who may be just lacking the necessary buying limit to purchase as freely as he would wish, endeavours to "pick up" some lots in the lines of skirtings. In recent years more especially the ranks of such buyers have been strengthened by the addition of Japan ami, as is usual in such circumstances, stronger competition means better prices. The term "skirtings" is generally applied to the wool taken from the fleece in the preparation of the clip for the market. The relative prices of the better lines of skirtings such as neck 9, brokens and first pieces, and the comparatively narrow margin between such prices and the prices for the fleece wools of the same clip have arrested the attention of growers, states the company, but this feature of the market has not been nearly so puzzling to the majority as the comparatively close relationship in the prices for the smaller trimmings taken from the main lines of skirtings and the prices paid for the bulk of the better class of skirtings;" Big weights of the smaller skirtings have been purchased by Japan in later years, and it would appear that comparatively low labour costs of sorting and handling, compared with such costs in other manufacturing centres, provide the answer to the query concerning the relatively high prices for the lines of smaller trimmings. The increased call for these shorter wools from the woollen trade has strengthened demand from England alsc. At one time the Continental operators were the principal buyers of the shorter skirtings, but today Japan is able tc outbid them. The review emphasises the dominating influence of the pastoral industry on the finance and trade of the Commonwealth. If not yet actually returned to a state of prosperity, the industry as a whole has made substantial progress to that end. The majority of growers have overcome the serious difficulties resulting from the years of depression.