In a better week, the Australian wool market finished 0.3% higher, on average, at sales in Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle this week.
The AWEX EMI rose by 6¢ (+0.7%), ending the week at 890¢/kg. This reflected a decrease of 2¢ (-0.2%) in the North and an increase of 12¢ (+1.4%) in the South, with their corresponding Regional Indicators finishing the week at 925¢ and 861¢ clean, respectively. The Western Indicator fell by 3¢ (-0.3%), finishing the week at 865¢.
In a two day sale in Sydney and Melbourne, the AWEX EMI rose by 4¢ on Wednesday, when the US exchange rate was well over 94¢, and by 2¢ on Thursday. The Western Indicator fell by 4¢ on Wednesday and rose by 1¢ on Thursday in a two day sale in Fremantle.
46,694 bales were on offer, compared with 48,646 bales last week, of which 14.4% were passed in, comprised of 11.0% in Sydney, 13.1% in Melbourne and 21.8% in Fremantle, all of which are lower than the corresponding pass-in rates of recent weeks.
Pass-in rates for Merino fleece and skirtings were 16.2% and 13.7%, respectively. 3,816 bales (7.6%) were withdrawn prior to sale and re-offered bales made up 18.1% of this week's offering.
The re-offer rate was almost 20% of the offering for the second week in a row.
The US exchange rate (source RBA) was 0.27¢ lower on Monday when compared with Thursday of last week. It was up by 0.92¢ on Tuesday, down by 0.84¢ on Wednesday and by 0.45¢ on Thursday to close at 93.36¢, down 0.64¢ (-0.7%) since the last sale.