The rapid gains of the past three weeks at the Australian wool auctions came to an abrupt halt this week and the Australian Wool Exchange (AWEX) Eastern Market Indicator (EMI) plunged 98ac or 6.1 per cent this week to close at 1511ac clean/kg. Prices were crunched across the majority of the offering, with only the carding sector remaining unscathed.

In US Dollar (USD) terms, the USD EMI losses were similar and 6.6 per cent or 71usc was eliminated and that indicator closed at the 1015usc clean/kg level. Once again, the forex movement assisted buyers using USD, as the rate went 0.5 per cent to their favour, the Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) said in its weekly report.

"Caution again reigns supreme, as the majority of the trade awaits the first retail garment data releases from the northern hemisphere Autumn sales. These will be out mid-month and will highly likely determine the trajectory the wool market trends to for the next few months," the 'Wool Market' report for the sale week 14 of the current wool season said.

However, focus will be upon the Chinese data, as "that country is now estimated to use around 45 per cent of all wool product sold annually. The past ten years has seen China and the Australian wool industry incredibly intertwined, given not only the consumer consumption of China, but also the provision of the processing capability of three quarters of our clip annually in China," the report added.

Merino fleece dropped a general 120 to 140ac during the sale week ending October 4. All types and descriptions were similarly affected. Skirtings and crossbred wools were 50 to 80ac cheaper whilst cardings sold to a largely unchanged basis, which is quite strange as that sector has been reported as being the weakest in demand, yet performed the strongest of any sector this week.

Passed in rates reached extreme levels on Thursday as almost 60 per cent of the Merino fleece offering failed to meet grower reserves. On top of the high passed rates, 4,000 bales or 11 per cent was withdrawn prior to sale.

Around 34,000 bales of wool would be on offer at auctions next week.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RKS)

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