Australian Wool Market Weekly Report Week 12

Australian Wool Industries Secretariat Inc (AWIS) reported that the AWEX Regional Indicators finished 1.1% lower, on average, at sales in Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle this week. The US exchange rate fell by 0.8%, taking the change in the EMI in US currency to -2.0%.

The market was not able to hold onto last week’s gains, confirming the trade comments last week that the reasons for last week’s rise appeared to be more related to factors other than genuine demand. However, the overall market remains above the level of two weeks ago in both Australian and US currencies.

Most, but not all, AWEX Micron Price Guide (MPGs) eased on Wednesday with bigger falls occurring from 19.5 to 21.0 microns in the North and the West. Falls on Thursday were generally less than occurred on Wednesday, apart from the 19.5 to 21.0 micron wools in the South. They had fared better than the equivalent wools in the North and the West on the previous day.

Members of the trade report a continuing of the trend for the non-Merino fleece types to do better than Merino fleece.

The EMI is 289¢(-23.4%) less than in the same week last year and was 130¢(-12.2%) less than at the start of the season. The WMI is 266¢(-21.8%) less than in the same week last year and was 124¢(-11.5%) less than at the start of the season.

In other countries, the South African Cape Wools Indicator was up by 0.3%% in Rand and by 0.1% in US currency since last week. In New Zealand, the Wool Services International crossbred Indicators were mixed, with fine crossbred fleece quoted as“nominally 2% cheaper”and coarse crossbred fleece as 4% dearer.

Among other fibres, December Futures for cotton was steady during the week, but fell by 3.16¢on Friday, to finish the week at 73.25¢, down by 03.5% from the previous week.

41,074 bales were on offer, compared with 33,192 bales last week. 9.8% were passed in, comprised of 9.5% in Sydney, 9.4% in Melbourne and 11.7% in Fremantle. Pass-in rates for Merino fleece and skirtings were 12.4% and 4.5%, respectively.

37,031 bales were cleared to the trade.

The year-to-date offering is 57,727 bales less (-14.0%) than at the end of the same week last year. The current forecast for the next three sales suggest that the year-on-year difference will come back to between -10.5% and 11.0% over that period.

The New Zealand Merino Company also offered 897 bales in Melbourne on Wednesday of which 28.1% were passed in. 6.2% of the bales were re-offers.

The US exchange rate picked up sharply on the previous Friday after the United States Federal Reserve announced its third round of quantitative. It reached a six month high over the following weekend. This was followed by an easing during the current week. Financial analysts associated Thursday’s fall in the US exchange rate with the announcement of a low Chinese Purchasing Managers’Index (PMI).

It moved back to 104.69¢at Friday’s close.

It was a good week for the better skirting types, which generally lifted in price, or held firm during the week. It was also a good week for crossbred types. The 3.6% fall in the 32 micron MPG needs to be kept in context, as it rose by 7.9% last week; and is well up on the corresponding value of two weeks ago. Oddments were a bit mixed, but mostly had a reasonable week. This was particularly so for locks which rose during the week.

Buyers from China were dominant this week, followed by strong support from buyers for Europe and India.

Highlights from the Australian Bureau of Statistics export data for July, and for the July to July period for the top five export destinations and three other key destinations follow.

Sales will be held in Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle next week, when 37,109 bales are currently rostered for sale over Wednesday and Thursday. Present estimates for the following two sales (Weeks 14 and 15) are 47,329 and 42,100 bales, respectively; a decrease of 0.1% over the three sale period when compared with last year.