THE WOOL OUTLOOK

Southland Times, Issue 22969, 15 August 1936, Page 14

THE WOOL OUTLOOK

GOOD PROSPECTS IN AUSTRALIA The Australian wool-selling season begins next month, and it is satisfactory to note that there is very little concern in wool circles about the whole of the new clip being absorbed. It has been pointed out that the clip is likely to reach 3,036,000 bales this season, or 50 per cent, more than the quantity 10 years ago, writes “Straggler” in The Press. In that period, however, Australian and Japanese millmen have taken 800,000 more bales. In New Zealand in 1925 Japan bought 1.21 per cent, of the total export, and 10 years later the quantity was 4.85 per cent If the expressed determination of the Japanese Government to reduce Australian purchases to a small compass is carried out it should mean a marked increase in Japan’s participation in the New Zealand sales. Last season Japan bought 779,857 bales of Australian wool, or 30 to 40 per cent, more than the total New Zealand clip. As there is only one other fine wool country—South Africa—where Japan can moderately replace this huge quantity of fine wool a descent on the South Island wool auctions is not improbable. Just what this would mean in the requirements of the New Zealand mills is a matter of conjecture. However, broadly, the probabilities are in favour of increased competition for a big proportion of the fine wool of this island. Australian authorities consider that the new trade arrangement with the British Government will greatly increase Bradford competition for the new clip, and compensate for the reduced Japanese buying, which some authorities consider will be down to 250,000 bales. The German and French competition, generally erratic and uncertain, at the recent London auctions is regarded optimistically by the Australian wool trade. In the long run it is the competition from the outside sources that assists so materially in the absorption of the clip, and the brisker interest of Continental buyers is interpreted as indicating that the stocks in these countries are at -a low .ebb.