American Wool Council Reports Increased Public Demand For Woollen Goods

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 40, 23 April 1948, Page 6

American Wool Council Reports Increased Public Demand For Woollen Goods

The United States is today the most wool-conscious country in the world, consuming more and better wool per capita and as a nation than any other country, the America Wool Council states in a survey of the clothing outlook for the spring and fall of 1948 received by the New Zealand Wool Board. This entirely reverses the pre-war situation, when the United States was among the lowest of all per capita users of apparel wool. Other facts claimed by the Council are:—

The wool textile industry in the United States is the world’s most efficient and modern, with an estimated production for 1947 of 500 million linear yards of apparel woollens and worsteds. This compares with an estimated production of 375 million yards by Great Britain, the largest single wool textile producing country in the world. This production, which is expected to be repeated in 1948, is requiring approximately one billion pounds of wool, or 70 per cent more than United States average pre-war consumption. Value of fabric produced is estimated to be in the vicinity of 1,250,000,000 dollars going into clothing, with a wholesale value of 8,000,000,000 dollars. The American textile industry employs 165,000 persons and provides raw materials for garment industries employing 300,000 people.

In spite of higher costs of raw materials and wage rates in both the wool textile and garment manufacturing industries, which are two to three times higher than any other country, American ready-to-wear clothing, quality for quality, in fabrics and in tailoring, is claimed to be the cheapest in the world. Wool textiles —and clothing—according to present indications will most probably cost more in 1948, adds the Council. One of the chief reasons for this advance is the increased costs of wools, principally from Australia, on which the United States has become increasingly dependent. More money is being spent by the American wool textile industry in new equipment, experimentation, sales promotion and advertising.