to the continuing swing everywhere towards man-made fibre.
Apart from Hong Kong, our principal suppliers of m a f' fabric
are, however, countries enjoying no natural cost advantage
over the UK and 4/5ths of this year's increase has come from
these sources, principally EFTA countries but also the EEC
and the US. It seems to be characteristic of the "textilo
oycle" for imports to respond more quickly to a recovery in
demand than domestic production, but on past experience we
would expect to see the latter revive by mid-1972.
14 Thus far, the evidence does not indicate that low-cost
imports are at the heart of Lancashire's problems. It is
likelier that these come from a combination of low demand,
rising costs and continuing low efficiency as well as from
imports. Indeed, the industry once again presents a picturo
of having as a whole failed to adjust early enough even with
the blue print of the P & E Study before it and waited until
circumstances forced its hand; times may have been hard, but
not, it seems, hard enough.
A good many firms must havo hung
on as weak sellers though it is fair to add that some of the
big groups are accused of having installed too much new
capacity of the wrong sort and of selling weak to keep it
busy. There have been some recent closures of modern millo
(though this involves judgments of management as well as of
equipment), but the majority of closures have not been in thío
category. Most of the present fuss is coming from the
smaller and weaker firms who tend to form the majority in
the BTEA. The bigger groups on the whole continue to spook
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