WOOL TRADE DIFFICULTY

Taranaki Daily News, 8 October 1928, Page 11

WOOL TRADE DIFFICULTY

EXPERTS NOT OPTIMISTIC BUYERS AND SELLERS PERPLEXED SUDDEN CHANGE IN THE MARKET. By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. Australian Press Association. Received Oct. 7, 5.5 p.m. • London, Oct. 6. The total offerings at the wool sales just closed were 140,000 bales, of which 92,000 were sold, the Continent taking 55,500, Yorkshire 35,500 and America 1000. Expert commentators take none too rosy a view of the future prospects. H. Dawson and Company state the sales not only registered a severe decline in values, but left both producing and consuming sections of the industry in a perplexing and uncertain position. Until the opening of the sales there was no indication of such serious trouble. The scarcity of new yarn orders from the Continental centres, combined with the strike in Sydney, began the anxiety, which was intensified by the decision of holders of raw wool, who could not obtain adequate prices for tops and yarns, to send their stocks for re-sale. This decision to become sellers instead of buyers did much to shake confidence, checked new business at the manufacturing end and changed the fairly comfortable position of July and August into one that approaches stagnation. The whole industry from grower to tho distributor of cloths received a great shock by the sudden change in the market, but there is no justification for the semi-panic felt in some quarters. New arrivals of colonial purchases, though dear, will not be heavy, and stocks of raw material and manufactured goods are generally light. The export demand for cloth is surprisingly good. Shipments for the first eight months of the year total 120,000,000 square yards, compared with 112,000,000 for the same period last year.