AUSTRALIAN WEEKLY MARKET REPORT

Comment

Small but positive gains were seen across the whole offering this week. The clearance rate was higher as well with more than 17,000 bales sold, or 92% of the bales available. The notable factor was that all types from superfine merino to crossbred and cardings all improved by similar percentages. We are seeing a few ultrafine wools, 15.5 and finer, that are attracting good competition in small supply. The selection is also starting to improve in terms of yield and we expect discounts for low yield to reduce as the selection changes.

AWEX Eastern Indicator compared with 22/05/2020

Eastern Indicator

Close: 1170

Change in % +1.30

If you want to learn more about AWEX indicators, visit the official website http://www.awex.com.au

Authentico Index Values

15 Micron

Close: 2420

Change in %:  +3.42

16 Micron

Close: 2034

Change in %: -0.29

17 Micron

Close: 1769

Change in %: +1.03

18 Micron

Close: 1630

Change in %: +1.81

19 Micron

Close: 1491

Change in %: +1.50

Authentico Indicator

Close: 1818

Change in %: +1.28

Forecast

Some of the early shorn clips from the New England are now coming into store. A couple of factors will limit the supply of quality ultrafine wool that should help prices in the medium term despite the general limited interest from Europe. Tensile strength due to the change in season around February is resulting in more tender wool, with a large number of the lines with high mid break. Secondly the VM content will be completely different when compared with the past few seasons. The drought resulted in little to no VM in the clip up until now. Some early shorn clips have fleece lines approaching 1.5 to 2% vm and skirtings around 7%. A very different scenario for first stage processors like us. We should remind growers that the grass seed (shive) type VM is a very difficult to remove in the combing process and all care should be taken this year to remove the higher VM necks to reduce the impact of VM in the best fleece lines.

Auction offering – current week

Market          Sale          Offered             Sold       Passed In

North                      S 48                     5429                         5216                 3.9%

South                     M 48                     9270                        8430                 9.1%

West                       F 48                      4129                         3697                10.5%

Auction offering – next week

Market          Sale          Sale days          Volume

North                      S 49                        T-W                           7184

South                     M 49                        T-W                           9952

West                        F 49                        no sale

 

If you want to see the complete Wool Sales Roster click here.