News Flash

Weak rand boosts wool market

07 Feb '08

2 min read

The sharp depreciation of the rand played a major role in pushing Cape Wools' Merino indicator to a fresh seasonal high of R66,35/kg (clean). This is up 3,1% on last week and up 18,6% on the opening level.

The rand fell to its lowest level against the US dollar in six months. The rand was trading at R7,64 against the dollar, which was down 6,4% on last week, and at R11,16 against the euro (-5,2%).

In Australia, the market pulled back 3,3% on last week, confirming the significant support provided by the cheaper rand in South Africa this week.

The finer end of the market posted the biggest increases with 19 microns and 20 microns gaining 4% to 5%.

Purchases were spread quite evenly among processors and grease wool exporters. This week also saw a smaller offering of 7 392 bales, which was almost 2 000 bales less than the previous week, and a sales percentage of 99% was achieved.

Major buyers were Standard Wool SA (1 881 bales); Modiano (989 bales); Chargeurs Wool (962 bales); Lempriere (Aus) Ltd (943 bales); Stucken (685 bales), ADF (678 bales), and Segard Masurel (601 bales).

Average price movements for AWEX-type fleeces, MF4 and MF5 of 70 and 80 mm were as follows: 19 microns gained 4,4% at R87,83/kg; 20 microns were up 5,4% at R76,85/kg; 21 microns were 1,6% dearer at R68,19/kg; 22 microns rose 5,4% at R65,70/kg, but there no quotes for 23, 24 and 25 microns due to insufficient quantities in these categories.

Next week, approximately 9 000 bales will come under the hammer.

Cape Wools SA

More Capewools News...