Wool market finishes 1.1% lower

03 May '10

3 min read

The Australian wool market finished 1.1% lower, on average, at sales in Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle this week when the US exchange rate eased by 0.2%.

38,877 bales were on offer, compared with 41,706 bales last week. Grower resistance to the fall in the market over the last four sales remains high with 16.3% were passed in, comprised of 11.1% in Sydney, 13.9% in Melbourne and 28.0% in Fremantle. Pass-in rates for Merino fleece and skirtings were 19.7% and 11.3%, respectively.

2,304 bales (5.6%) from the expected offering of 41,181 bales were withdrawn prior to sale and re-offered bales made up 19.8% of the final offering. 32,543 bales were cleared to the trade.

The US exchanged rate was virtually unchanged, while the Euro exchange is almost through the 70¢ record barrier. The increase in the Euro exchange rate is related to the ongoing economic problems in Greece and now Portugal.

It was a softer market again this week, when the price movements on Wednesday were partly buffered by an easing of the US exchange rate. A rise in the US exchange rate on Thursday saw the EMI move back by a further 5¢ in Australian currency when it only eased by 2¢ in US currency. There were falls across all types and micron ranges, with the greatest falls between 19 and 20 microns.

The prices for skirting types also eased on both days with prices down around 10¢ greasy, on average, on both days. Crossbreds fared better than Merino types, particularly for the 26 and 28 micron wools in the South. Week-on-week changes in their average AWEX MPGs were 26 micron (+1.2%), 28 microns (+1.3%), 30 micron (+0.3%) and 32 microns ( 0.3%). Oddments also eased during the week, particularly in the South on Thursday. The average AWEX Merino Cardings MPG was down by 13¢ (-2.1%)

Buyers for China, although less strong than earlier in the year, were again dominant, followed by buyers for Europe, Taiwan and India.

Sales will be held in Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle next week, when 43,852 bales are currently rostered for sale. Present estimates for the following two sales (Weeks 46 and 47) are 40,020 and 43,000 bales, respectively; an increase of 1.5% over the three sale period when compared with last year.

In South African sales, the Cape Wools Indicator was up by 2.6% since last sale against a 2.7% depreciation of the Rand against the US Dollar and a 0.6% appreciation against the Euro. 8,842 bales were on offer.

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Australian Wool Industries Secretariat

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