Strong Market At London Wool Sales

Chronicle (Levin), 1 December 1949, Page 3

Strong Market At London Wool Sales

Received Wednesday -7 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 30. * Some-of tbe strongest spot market eonditions since the war vvei^e in evidence at the London vvooJ saies, whicth Qpened last weekend. With all sec-' tions of the Yorkshire trade buying heavily to correet the lightly stoeked position ahd good support fortheonung from several seotions of Continental bu3rers, priees paid in London not. oniy conflrmed the dearer levels lately established in the Dominion markets bat were also frequently in exeess of Dominion prices for eomparable sorts. Oompared with the Liverpool October sale, greasy Merino topmaking wools were 7-i per cent dearer ri'siug to 10 per cent for short Continental combing types, while scoured Merinos were 10 per cent dearer in good style wools and up to 20 per cent dearer in averagt: styles. Greasy eoraebacks and •line c-rossbreds#' v/ere 10 per cent. dearer, New Zealand greasy medium X-bred 15 to 20; per cent dearer and scoured crossbreds and slipes were also 20 per cent up. All New Zealand wools showed a clear premium over prices paid at the Auckland sale whieh opened the New Zealand marketing season earlier last week and made crossbred wools any thing up to 50 per cent dearer than in July last. One reason for the exceptional demand now iii evidence in the spot market is that the present stage .of the season finds trade stocks unus.ually low as lirms await .bulk arrivals of new clip wool from the Dominion sale's whieh opened some weeks agq, Added to this is the fact that United Kingdom wool consumption. maintains very high levels and that the rate of consumption over the pas.t year has no.l allowed many firms to build up adequate margins of stock. Another factor whieh plaees spot wool in a favourable position is that the general Jevel of wool prices in. the past year or two has discouraged many firms from carrying stocks in excess ot visible requirements and as a matter at poliey some have preferred tp buy spot wool as needed rather than engage in iong date buying programmes. There is a wide representation of , Continental bnyers in the London mar- j ket including Prance, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland and- some of the Scandinavian codntries while orders for Germany are also heid by some buying houses. Not all these eonntries are buying at high pressure_ but the total buying power they put into the market represents- strong support for prices. There is nothing to indieatQ that either the United States or ' Bussia are iu the London market though that may be due to the fact that the general standard of the offerings is not verv suitable for these c.ountries.