WHY JAPAN BUYS WOOL

Waipa Post, Volume 48, Issue 3467, 17 May 1934, Page 3

WHY JAPAN BUYS WOOL

SILK SPINNING CURTAILED The Japan Trade Review recently reported that part of the Japanese silk-spinning machinery is being changed over to wool spinning. Production of silk spinning has been curtailed. The Japan Spun Silk Yarn Producers’ Association has about 425,000 spun silk spindles 1 , of which about 33 per cent, were sealed against use. The Nippon Kinuori Kaisha has converted about 13,400 spindles to wool spinning. The Dai Nippon, the Toyo Fuji, and Nitto Spinning Companies will use their suspended spindles for the production of woollen yarn. By the end of 1933 it was expected that 60,000 spun silk spindles would be applied to wool spinning. Evidently the Japanese woollen textile equipment has

not been able to cope with the orders received for goods. Japanese wool purchasing has been generally keen this season in Australia and New Zealand. Purchases have also been made in South Africa, the exports from that country to Japan from July to the end of December totalling approximately 6451 bales of greasy wool and a small quantity of scoured. Melbourne brokers have been informed that Japan intends to buy 30,000 bales of wool annually in South Africa. This indicates that Japan is buying slightly more wool in Africa, but this quantity is negligible alongside its Australian purchases, which have aggregated 434,000 bales in the eight months of this season. Japan from time to time has threatened to transfer her buying to South Africa, but apparently has not been serious. In any case there is not the supply of wool available there. For the first six months of

the season greasy wool exported from South Africa averaged only IOJd a lb compared with 14.6 d a lb in Australia in the same period. The clean yield of African wool is at least 10 per cent, below the average yield of the Australian staple.