STAPLE FIBRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 April 1938, Page 2

STAPLE FIBRE

COMPETITION WITH WOOL. GROWTH IN PAST YEAR. The rapid growth of the staple fibre industry during the past year is reviewed in the latest wool intelligence report of the Imperial Economic Committee. It points out that almost the whole of the world output of staple fibre emanates from those industrial countries which are also large wool consumers, and that production of fibre in these countries was almost twice as great in 1937 as in the previous year.

Output in Germany rose from 90.000,0001bs. to about 200,000,0001 b. in 1937, resulting in the country displacing Italy as the world’s largest producer. Direct measures included the enforced utilisation of staple fibre in uniform cloths. The demand by the textile industry in 1937 was so keen that a quota system was introduced, with a system of allocation similar to that for imported raw materials. The increase in Japanese production in 1937 was even more striking than in Germany. Output rose from about 8,000,0001 b. in January to about 18,000,0001 b. monthly during the last four months of the year. The total for the year is not available but it is known to be more than 150,000,00011 b.

Staple fibre has increasingly replaced cotton in the manufacture of native garments in Japan. Its cheapness as compared with wool has also favoured its use in mixtures with the latter. In October, 1937, a Government decree was issued requiring wool kimonas and blankets for domestic consumption to contain from 20 to 30 percent. staple fibre, and as from the beginning of February, 1938, this decree was extended to cover serge, hosiery, etc.

After the beginning of February, 1938, it was made compulsory for nearly all cotton yarn, and all cotton piece-goods and hosiery, to contain at least 30 per cent, staple fibre, when intended for domestic consumption. Under the stimulus of these two decrees the use of staple fibre in mixtures should increase considerably in 1938.

The chief expansion in Italian production took place in 1935 and since the beginning of 1936 the increase in output has been relatively slow. Although Great Britain was the fourth largest manufacturer of staple fibre last year, the amount of 35,120,0001 b. was an increase of more than 6,000,000 lb. on the 1936 figure. There was also an increase in staple fibre production in the United States last year, the total being 20,100,0001 b. as compared with 12,300,0001 b. a year earlier.