News

Grower reaction to the recent better wool market resulted in an increased offering, however, this proved too much for the market and it lost momentum this week. AWEX reported that the retracement was across the board, following the weak finish in Fremantle last week.

While the trend for the week was softer, on the final day some support was evident and Fremantle was quoted as “ending on an encouraging note”.

The Eastern Market Indicator (EMI) gave up the 19 cents gained last week to close at 1,555 cents. The AU$ fell marginally by 0.03 cents to US $0.679. This meant the EMI in US$ produced a small retracement, losing 13 cents for the week to 1,057 cents.

The softer market saw the Western Market Indicator (WMI) down 22 cents on the week to close at 1655 cents.

Again, growers were happy to resist the softer market. The pass-in rate increased to 16.1% for the week, up 9% on last week. The national offering of 38,297 bales was a 2,000 bale lift to last week’s volumes. Despite an increased offering, bales sold, at 32,143 was 1,500 bales fewer than last week’s total. This season’s bale clearance continues to lag well behind 2018 at a difference of 100,639 bales. The average weekly bales volume is currently 5,500 behind last year.

The dollar value for the week was $54.37 million, with the average bale value sitting at $1,691, $90 per bale below last week’s average. The combined value so far this season is $841.1 million.

The crossbred sector is following its normal pattern, finding its lows over the past 5 years in November & December. On a positive note, recent history shows a firming trend for the new calendar year. The skirtings market found good support, especially for better style finer types, while cardings remained largely in line with last week.

The week ahead

A relatively large offering is scheduled for next week’s sales with 39,280 bales currently on the roster across the three selling centres. Again we pin our hopes on the encouraging tone observed in Fremantle to the end of Thursday’s sales.