Weekly Wool Market Commentary

Week S39: 29/03/2023: The AWEX EMI closed on 1318c, maintaining last week’s levels at auction sales in Australia this week.

44,147 bales went under the hammer this week across the three selling centres with 89.4% clearing to the trade. With currency relatively stable, the local exporters dominated the buyers list and as expected Chinese interests were prominent.

Orders for India were reported as prominent this week in addition to the very best specified and classed lots being snapped up by the Italian spinners. The EMI was able to rise 2c on both Tuesday and Wednesday however as the Melbourne centre offered in isolation on Thursday the EMI fell the 4 c it had accrued earlier in the week.

Merino Fleece: success was mainly in the 19.5µ, and coarser lots which added 20-25c for the early part of the week whilst the 18.5µ and finer lots continued their emerging cheaper trend. When analysing further it seems that the diminishing quality of the offering is influencing the market rather than the demand.

Merino Skirtings: opened the week in Sydney on a fully firm basis with the exception of the 16µ skirtings, which were 30-40 dearer after Tuesday’s sale. Prices continued to rise on Wednesday with increases of 10-15c measured on Wednesday.

Crossbred combing wool: struggled to maintain this week with the 25-28µ fleece giving back 5-15c for the week. The pass in rate climbed to 13% for the XB sector as sellers resisted the lower offers.

Merino Cardings: The MC indicator gave back 6-10c through merino locks with 5% VM 50c cheaper whilst the heavier VM remaining fully firm. Crossbred oddment prices are still depressed.

Commentary: Money and local logistics remained the key issue for the wool market. The 1 week easter recess approaching after next week’s sale may favour a catch up in the logistics bottleneck in the Melbourne dumps. The bank scare news that had the finance world on pause, and dominated the financial news seemed to dissipate from the media outlets this week.

Next week’s national offering is forecast to climb to 52,724 bales in Sydney, Fremantle and Melbourne, which was restricted to two days selling, due to the Good Friday Public Holiday.

- Marty Moses

• Topics:

• Agriculture
• Farming
• Wool