Evening star., 1941-03-23
T extiIes
Continued From Page E-1D

yards. about half of which are for
the Army. This represents a ma
terial increase over orders on hand
a year ago.
This business, combined with an
expected 10 per cent increase in
trade demand for fall cloth needs,
assures a high rate of operations
we'll into the spring, at least. ACtiv-
ity beyond that point will depend
largely on the extent of further
Government orders. In addition, any
later material curtailment in auto
mobile production necessitated by
defense priorities doubtless would
cause a marked decline in opera
tionS Of concerns specializing on
production of wool upholstery fab
RIGS for automobile production, un-
less output could be shifted to lines
needed for defense purposes.
Woolen goods prices have been
advanced to compensate for higher
raw wool costs, but further advances
may be difficult in view of the Gov
ernment's recent stand against price
increases in the industry. Mean
while, labor costs in some cases have
risen about 10 per cent and any
further rise, unless accompanied by
compensate price advances, would
narrow margins. Barring such a
development, the high rate of opera
tions in prospect should result in
favorable earnings. compared with
the slim returns of the first half
of 1910.
Increased employment and rising
consumer incomes should be re-
fected in an active demand for
mems clothing and furnishings and
women's wear in coming months.
Cloth costs are higher, but moderate
advances in clothing prices and pro-
duction economies achieved by
quality changes in the various SELL
ing price ranges should protect
profit margins of we'll situated
manufacturers
RayOn Plants at Capacity.
Rayon yarn deliveries again set
a new record in 1910, amounting to
389, 100000 pounds, compared with
1862, 100000 in 1889, the previous high.
Production is expected to hold at
capacity in coming months to meet
Indicated demand, but deliveries may
fall somewhat under the high rate
of late 1910 because of the low
level of producers stocks. Ship
ments should compare favorably
with a year ago, nevertheless, and
with wool pulp prices unchanged for
both the first and second quarters,
margins should be we'll maintained.
Although excess profits taxes will
be heavy. continued sizable earnings
are expected for all leading pro-
ducers.
Rejecting the rising trend of re-
tail buying, shipment of women's
full-fashioned hosiery (Which ac-
count for the greatest use of silk
set a new high mark in January of
S.250,297 dozen pairs. This repre-
sents gain of 7.8 per cent over the
previous high for the month, estab-
lished in January, 1940 Total
hosiery shipments of IL 1922 1897 dozen
pairs for January also were at a new
high for that month.
Shipments of nylon hosiery
amounted to 394,254 dozen pairs, a
decline from the 458,333 and 455 ,668
dozen pairs reported for November
and December, respectively. In
dications are that full-faShioned
hosiery shipments will hold at good
levels during early future months
at least. in response to the active
retail demand stimulated by in
creased consumer buying power.
AS the year progresses, however,
more nylon yarn will be available
and this will stimulate production
of nylon hosiery. AS the latter will
cut into the silk hosiery market, it
Is probable that full-fashioned silk
hosiery shipments for all of 1941
will fall below the 1926 900 dozen
pairs of 1940 This, in turn, will
hold down silk consumption, so that
little change in the extremely low
level of silk deliveries in 1910 is
likely this year.