WOOL prices continued to recover at a Western Wool Centre (WWC) one-day sale last week, after the slump that ended the previous season, before live wool auctions went into an annual three-week recess.
Following a 7658-bale offering, out of a national 30,991-bale tally, for auction over two days the previous week to open the 2019-20 wool season, the WWC offered 5122 bales on Wednesday last week, out of a larger national total of 34,080 bales up for auction.
Landmark put up more than one third of the WWC offering, with five other brokers representing six companies also contributing catalogues.
According to Australian Wool Exchange (AWEX), 32.7 per cent of the bales - including up to 37.8pc of fleece wool - were reoffers at the WWC last week.
That is, the bales had been offered previously and rejected by buyers before bidding had reached a reserve price set by woolgrowers and their brokers.
The comparative reoffer rate at the main Melbourne wool selling centre last week was 10.9pc and in Sydney only 7.9pc were reoffers, according to AWEX.
The high reoffer rate at the WWC might in part explain the 12.4pc passed-in rate last week.
It was almost double the national passed-in rate of 6.3pc and considered particularly high for the second week of the season by brokers, given indent traders will not be able to buy wool to complete outstanding orders at any of the three AWEX auction centres until Wednesday, August 7, at the earliest.
The alternative view from wool traders is that they had factored in the three-week recess, completed orders early and did not need to pay more for wool they had previously rejected.
The Western Indicator finished the week up 27 cents at 1894c a kilogram clean and WWC price guides from 18 to 21 micron wools climbed between 23 and 30c/kg.
However, the recent trend at the WWC of a very compressed spread of prices across the micron spectrum continued last week.
The trend was first commented on by AWEX technical controller at the WWC, Andrew Rickwood, in his May 22 market report when easing finer micron wool prices and firming mid-micron prices resulted in just a 30c difference between the 18 and 22 micron price guides.
Although Mr Rickwood did not mention it in last week's market report, the price difference between 18 micron wool at 2056c/kg and 21 micron wool at 2038c/kg was down to 18c after the one-day sale last week.
Also, despite the rises, WWC price indicators for 18 and 18.5 micron wools trailed Sydney prices by 87c/kg and 45c/kg respectively at the end of last week, according to AWEX, and trailed Melbourne prices by 60c/kg and 12c/kg.
The Melbourne price guide for 19 micron wools was also 11c/kg up on the WWC guide, while the Sydney price was the same as at the WWC.
For 19.5 and 20 micron wools, the Melbourne market ended last week 5c and 6c firmer than the WWC which in turn was 3c and 7c firmer than the Sydney market.
Local trader PJ Morris Wools was the major buyer at the WWC - taking 22.9pc of last week's offering - for the fifth consecutive trading day since the middle of last month.
Tianyu Wool was second biggest buyer taking 21.1pc of the offering.
It has also featured most weeks near the top of the WWC major buyers list.
Some brokers last week reported a trickle of new season wool coming into wool stores from early shearings.
They believe Wheatbelt farmers who run sheep, particularly those who normally shear late in the year after harvest, may bring shearing forward to spring this year to clear the way for a potential late harvest, after the late break to start the growing season.