Sydney, Australia, October 8--A moderate upward trend was registered by Japan in its imports of wool carpet imports in the second quarter this year after exceptional volume gains seen in the first quarter, according to Fibre2Fashion.com.
Woven carpet imports out of Europe registered volume gains, with competitive price points being the primary contributor.
Imports of high end knotted carpet, mainly from Iran and Pakistan, also picked up, though modestly. However, volume of tufted wool carpets went down.
China Belgium and Pakistan, in that order, turned up as the main wool carpet suppliers during the first six months of the year.
Imports from Italy jumped nearly 20 times from the very small volume recorded last year, making it now the fourth largest supplier. The Netherlands recorded a similar year on year gain, with Japan's imports from the Netherlands growing by over 100 times.
For both Italy and the Netherlands, competitive pricing has been the key to the volume increases during the first six months of 2004.
While wool carpet volumes lifted substantially during the first six months of 2004, average household expenditure of these items actually shrunk.
It seems that the current revival in imports of luxury-sector wool carpets may be driven more by industrial demand, mainly for hotels and retail outlets.
