considerable number of operators, but also in the
closing-down of the smaller, conventional
manufacturing units which could not find the capital
for new machinery. The firms that were able to
invest in new machinery soon discovered that to be
profitable the machinery would have to be utilized
more fully than the old machinery. With the
exception of those industries which for technical
reasons have to be kept in continuous production,
the textile industry has a higher volume of shiftwork
than any other Swedish industry.
Competitiveness
Swedish competitiveness in foreign markets
must also have depended to some extent on the types
A
of textile products the industry had to offer.
manufacturing industry based on fashion goods alone
cannot hope to survive the international price
competition;
for
this is particularly true in the case
of Sweden, whose raw material costs are higher than
the cost of finished garments from for example
Yugoslavia (2 two-piece suits for Sw.kr. 198 retail)
or Korea (a fully-fashioned, pure wool twin set
about Sw.Kr. 15). For this reason the local
industry learned not only how to produce, convert
and process knitted textiles and other types of
material from new fibres, but also how to improve
the properties of conventional textiles.
properties such as was ability, durability,
Where
colour
fastness, stretch and permanency are concerned, the
Swedish textile industry has in recent years kept
well abreast of international development. In a few
cases, notably the now popular double-stretch men's
suitings, it has even led the field.
}
Page 165Page 166