After two successive series of rises, and three without an overall fall, the Australian wool market has retracted this week.
The national offering fell below 40,000 bales, there was a total of 39,229 bales available to the trade, this was the smallest sale since the beginning of March. The majority of the losses were felt on the first selling day.
The individual Micron Price Guides (MPGs) for merino fleece dropped by between 9 and 66 cents. These losses combined with overall weakness in the crossbreds, skirtings and cardings resulted in an 18 cent fall in the AWEX Eastern Market Indicator (EMI).
The second selling day the market settled.
In the Eastern centres the prices on offer were generally within 10 cents of those achieved during the previous day. A stronger crossbred market helped to minimise the downward movement of the EMI, which dropped by 2 cents for the day. The EMI finished the week 20 cents lower, closing at 1,152 cents, a 1.8 per cent (pc) reduction.
A weakened Australian dollar (the AUD lost 0.49 cents compared to the USD since last week) meant that the fall was larger in USD terms. The EMI fell by 19 US cents, finishing at 745 US cents, a drop of 2.5pc.
A positive sign for the following series, the market finished strongly in the West, with all merino fleece MPGs recording positive movements (between 4 and 14 cents) to close out the series.
Although a very similar amount has been offered this season (there has been 3,940 less bales offered), compared to the previous season the total dollar amount sold is well down.
There has been a total of $1,902 million worth of wool sold this season. This is $167 million lower than the previous season.
Next week a similar size sale is expected.
There are currently 41,475 bales on offer in Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle.
Table showing wool prices for Season 24, Week 44
Graph showing Eastern Market Indicator (EMI)
For full details of auction sales, download the reports below.
