Buyers for China were dominant, followed by buyers for India. There was a much stronger presence of buyers for Europe this week and trade reports of better recent sales there.
Sales will be held in Newcastle, Melbourne and Fremantle next week, when 49,061 bales are currently rostered for sale. Present estimates for the following two sales (Weeks 23 and 24) are 48,320 and 46,600 bales, respectively; an increase of 9.8% over the three sale period when compared with last year. The New Zealand Merino Company is rostered to offer 2,050 bales in Week 24.
It was a strong market in South Africa on Wednesday when 11,058 bales were on offer. The Cape Wools Indicator was up by 2.4% since last week against a 1.1% depreciation of the Rand against the US Dollar and a 0.5% depreciation against the Euro.