Last Year's Conditions in the Textile Trade: Prices of Cotton and Yarn Mr. 1. E, Arnhold presided at the annul meeting of the Oriental Cotton Spinning & Weaving Ca., Ld. on Thursday afternoon, when" among those present were Mr. W. RB. Me-Bain and Capt, RoE directors, and Mr. J. A. Moller, tary, the attendance representing 10,000 shares.
In reviewing the yeu work, the] Chairman said:
The directors' report and accounts having been in your hands for come time I will, with your per mission, take them as read and cal upon the Secretary to read the auditor's report.
T much regret being unable to place a more satisfactory report before you. Conditions at the beginning of last year were not brilliant, but soon after China New Year an improvement set in engendering hopes of a return to prosperity for the textile trade. It was thought that whereas cotton would go back to a We have continued to make improvements in our mill and we may' say that it is in excellent condition. Our yarn has greatly improved and has, in recent time in the open market, fetched prices equal to standard yarn. Unfortunately the exchange still insists on a discount of Tls. 7 for our yarn against standard, and this prevents us from selling on the exchange, as in deliver-we would be penalized by this discount. If we could get full value for our yarn on the exchange the working of our mill would be much less difficult, as we would then no Tonger be restricted to the, at times, very narrow open market.' We have. had only a few minor stoppages at the mill owing to engine trouble and in the weaving plant we had a short stoppage owing to the breakdown of the transmission, Prospects for the New Year are doubtful. At present s for yarn and cloth we are making a small profit, but our supply of cotton will only take us to about the end of June, whereas the new crop does not come into the market before the end of August. At present prices for cotton are advancing far more rapidly than prices for yarn, and I would not care to predict what slightly lower level, yarn values! is going to happen after the turn of Would increase, thus establishing the half year, especially as the poli-truer relative' val between raw tical sky anything but free from cotton and yarn, Yarn as a matter of fact rose temporarily a few taels but cotton on the other hand, continued firming up, and from' China) New Year onward to the end of June, Shensi cotton gould hardly ever be bought inside of Tls. 46/47, Although we had covered practically our whole requirements at an average cost of about Tls. 44, wa Were unable, in spite of this favourable price, to sell our yarn and cloth a a profit.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.