SPECIALTY superfine wools featured predominantly in record prices achieved at the Western Wool Centre (WWC) last month.
On six of the 10 trading days wools as fine as 14.2 micron and up to 17.2 micron sold for 1800 cents a kilogram greasy or more.
At that price a 180kg bale of greasy wool is worth at least $3330.
Up until November 8 superfine wools had only broken through the 1800c/kg level on one occasion this year, in September, according to Australian Wool Exchange (AWEX) data.
On each of the trading days at the WWC last month lines of superfine wool sold for more than 1700c/kg greasy but unlike other years, most were new season’s wool, not special bales stored away until record prices were on offer – those had already been cleared out in previous months.
Fifth-generation woolgrowers Peter and Robyn Tilbrook, The Laurels, Darkan, were still shearing last week but managed to get two small lines of superfine wool to Bibra Lake for testing and into the Wednesday, November 29, sale to take advantage of near-record prices.
The sale results proved worthy of the effort to get the wool there.
Their line of three bales of 15.6 micron wool with 0.6 per cent vegetable matter, 69.5pc yield, 70 millimetre staple length and 41N/kt staple strength, topped the Elders sale.
It also set a record for the top price in an Elders’ catalogue at the WWC earlier this year.
Seatech Industrial wool buyer Alan Brown bid 1894c/kg for the line.
A second line of four bales of the Tilbrooks’ wool made second top sale price at 1774c/kg.
It had specifications of 16.4 microns, 0.5pc vm, 69.9pc yield, 82mm staple length and 45N/kt staple strength.
Peter Tilbrook said the family’s primary focus has been on producing fine wool.
He and Robyn had taken over from Sydney and Laurel Tilbrook in 1995 and continued along a path set by a decision in the early 1990s to lower the micron size of the clip while maintaining style and cut per head.
“The aim is to appeal to a niche market at the fine end,” Mr Tilbrook said.
“Rams have been purchased from the Jackson family’s Westerdale stud for many years.
“Westerdale’s wools are soft, white and bright with a high comfort factor and yield.
“Our decision to source rams from a higher rainfall area guarantees we have minimal negative fleece issues.”
Mr Brown said the priorities of the Chinese woollen mills he purchased for with specialty wools like the Tilbrooks’ were “softness, brightness and whiteness”.
“I know these wools, when they are processed they’ll come up really bright,” Mr Brown said.
“We don’t see a lot of these specialty (superfine) wools here, we (Seatech, the largest wool buyer in Australia) normally source ours from Tasmania, so when they do come up there’s good competition for them.”
Mr Brown said low vegetable matter and dust contamination were another important consideration with superfine wools, particularly those with a bold crimp, because contaminants were more difficult to wash out of finer wools than out of coarser wools.
The superfine wools usually went into special fabrics demanded by apparel manufacturers and often ended up in items worn next to the skin, he said.
“A lot of people assume the end-product manufacturers chose from what the mills produce, but at this finer end of the market it is more often the end product manufacturers determining a specification and asking the mills if they can make it,” Mr Brown said.
After a one-sale breather, the WWC market last week began climbing back towards record price territory with the finer wools leading the way.
The one exception was the price guide for Merino cardings, which never took a breather and just kept powering on to new records every sale day for 10 days straight, according to AWEX data.
The cardings guide finished the week up 12c at 1393c/kg.
The Western Indicator finished up 8c at 1725c/kg.