AWIS wool market review - Feb 9, 2007

10 Feb '07

3 min read

The Australian Wool market remained unchanged, on average, at sales in Sydney, Launceston and Fremantle this week.

The AWEX EMI decreased by 1¢ (-0.1%), ending the week at 930¢/kg clean. This reflected a decrease of 5¢ (-0.5%) in the North and an increase 3¢ (+0.3%) in the South, with their corresponding Regional Indicators finishing the week at 961¢ and 904¢ clean respectively. The Western Indicator rose by 3¢ (+0.3%), finishing the week at 946¢/kg clean.

When compared with the start of the upward movement in the market in October, the EMI and the Northern, Southern Indicators and Western Indicators are up by 189¢ (25.5%), 195¢ (25.5%), 184¢ (25.6%) and 229¢ (31.9%), respectively. 19 to 23 average AWEX Micron Price Guides are up by 222 to 261¢ over the period and by 187¢ for 24 micron wools. At the fine end, the changes are 109¢ for 17 micron wool, 132¢ for 17.5, 152¢ for 18 and 183¢ for 18.5 micron wool.

59,391 bales were on offer (compared with 81,448 last week), of which 11.1% were passed in, comprised of 5.1% in Sydney, 13.1% in Launceston and 15.2% in Fremantle. Pass in rates for Merino fleece and skirtings were 13.1% and 4.6% respectively. The pass-in rate rose during the week, but more so in Launceston, where growers were disappointed with prices for the big fine wool offering. 1,383 bales (2.3%) were withdrawn prior to sale and re-offered wools made up 11.5% of this week's offering.

The US exchange rate was 0.18¢ lower on Monday when compared with the Thursday of last week. It increased by 0.16¢ on Tuesday, by 0.21¢ on Wednesday and by 0.45¢ on Thursday to close at 78.15¢, up 0.64¢ (+0.8%) since the last sale. The exchange rate against the Euro increased by 0.54 Euro cents (+0.9%) to close at 60.01 Euro cents on Thursday night. When looked at in other currencies, the AWEX EMI increased by 5¢ in US terms and by 4¢ in Euro terms when compared with the previous sale.

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