Wool market finishes 1.2% higher

19 Sep '08

4 min read

The Australian wool market finished 1.2% higher, on average, at sales in Newcastle, Melbourne and Fremantle this week.

The AWEX EMI rose by 15¢ (+1.7%), ending the week at 896¢/kg. This reflected rises of 23¢ (+2.5%) in the North and 9¢ (+1.1%) in the South, with their corresponding Regional Indicators finishing the week at 939¢ and 860¢ clean, respectively. The Western Indicator fell by 1¢ (-0.1%), finishing the week at 845¢.

In a three day sale in Newcastle and a two day sale in Melbourne, the AWEX EMI rose by 4¢ on Tuesday, by 9¢ on Wednesday and by 2¢ on Thursday. The Western Indicator rose by 1¢ on Wednesday and fell by 2¢ on Thursday in a two day sale in Fremantle. As will be seen below, the difference between the East and the West was due to the relative absence of fine wools in the West.

49,532 bales were on offer, compared with 43,183 bales last week, of which 8.2% were passed in, comprised of 2.6% in Newcastle, 10.2% in Melbourne and 13.9% in Fremantle. Pass-in rates for Merino fleece and skirtings were 8.2% and 8.0%, respectively. 1,251 bales (2.5%) were withdrawn prior to sale and re-offered bales made up 8.1% of this week's offering.

The US exchange rate (source RBA) fluctuated wildly as global financial news was dominated by events in the United States and the knock-on effects through the world. It was 2.95¢ higher on Monday when compared with Thursday of last week, only to be down by 3.52¢ on Tuesday, up by 0.85¢ on Wednesday and down by 0.54¢ on Thursday to close at 79.36¢, down 0.26¢ (-0.3%) since the last sale.

The exchange rate against the Euro fell by 1.75 Euro cents (-3.1%) to close at 55.27 Euro cents on Thursday night. When looked at in other currencies, the AWEX EMI moved up by 10¢ (+1.4%) in US terms and was down by 7¢ (-1.4%) in Euro terms when compared with the previous sale.

It was another generally good, although mixed, week for growers, with strong competition for a good quality offering of superfine wool in Newcastle and for the better superfine types in Melbourne. Other Merino types did less well with week-on-week changes ranging from small decreases to small rises.

Average AWEX Micron Price Guides (MPGs) were up by 29¢ clean for 16.5 microns, by 33¢ for 17.0 microns, by 47¢ for 17.5 microns, by 44¢ for 18.0 microns, by 29¢ for 18.5 microns, by 9¢ for 19.0 microns and by 6¢ for 19.5 microns. The 20.0 micron wool average MPG was up by 2¢ clean, 21.0 microns was unchanged, 22.0 microns was down by 2¢, 23.0 microns by 7¢, and 24.0 microns was up by 3¢.

Skirting types were in strong demand all week, especially those at the fine end and those with lower VM levels. Oddments were up in Newcastle, but finished on a similar level to last week in the South and the West. Crossbred average MPGs rose by around 8¢ at the fine end, by 13¢ for medium types and by 7¢ at the coarse end on top of last week's good gains.

Buyers for China were dominant with support from buyers for Italy in Newcastle where the competition was reported as very strong, particularly over the first two days.

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