LOWER VALUES DISCLOSED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 479, 8 October 1928, Page 12

LOWER VALUES DISCLOSED

POSITION ANALYSED (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) LONDON. Saturday. The total offerings at the wool sales which have just closed were 140,000 bales, of which 92,000 were sold, the Continent taking 55,500, Yorkshire 35.500. America 1,000. Expert commentators take none too rosy a view of future prospects. H. Dawson and Company state that the sales not only registered a severe decline in values, but left both the 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. With a scarcity of new yarn orders from Continental centres, combined with a slight drop in Sydney, began anxiety, which was intensified by holders of raw wool, who could not obtain adequate prices for tops and yarns, deciding to send stocks for resale. This decision to become sellers instead of buyers did much to shake confidence and 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 the grower to the distributor of cloths, received a great shock* by the sudden change of the market, but there is no justification for the semi-panic felt in some quarters. The new arrival of colonial purchases, although dear, will not be heavy, and stocks of raw material and manufactured goods are generally light. The export demand for cloth is surprisingly good. The 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.