A CORRECTION last week saw the Western Australian wool market hand back one third of the previous three weeks' price increases.
But the Western Indicator (WI) remained above the 1000 cents per kilogram clean benchmark of industry strength and brokers are hoping the local market had just got a little ahead of itself and has now been brought back into line with Eastern States' markets.
Westcoast Wool & Livestock auctioneer and wool broker Danny Ryan subscribed to that theory.
"I think the market will settle for a bit now," said Mr Ryan while attending a Wannamal ram sale the day after the second of two small trading days at the Western Wool Centre (WWC) last week.
"Although the prices continued to come off yesterday, demand was still good."
Price falls across the micron spectrum were larger on the first of the two trading days last week, ranging from 48c (21 micron fleece) to 35c (18 micron fleece).
Australian Wool Exchange (AWEX) technical controller at the WWC, Andrew Rickwood in his market report noted "seller resistance to accept the lower price levels" and as a result 35pc of the 2366-bale fleece offering was passed in.
On the second trading day however, the WWC micron price guides showed falls reduced to between 28c (19.5 micron fleece) and 15c (19 micron fleece) with a much smaller 1481-bale fleece offering.
All WWC price guides remained above 1000c/kg - the 21 micron guide only just though at 1001c/kg - and the WI finished the week down a total of 61c to 1024c/kg.
Mr Rickwood noted seller resistance again on the second day and "by day's end over 28pc of the fleece failed to meet seller reserve", he said in his report.
Local trader Westcoast Wool & Livestock headed the first day's buyer list but was bumped back to second place on the second day by national trader Techwool, which had finished in third place after the first day.
Another local trader PJ Morris Wool and newest national trader Endeavour Wool Exports made up the top four buyers on both days.
Chinese buyers Lempriere (Australia) and Meliwa, which were fifth and seventh respectively on the WWC's buyer list after the first day's trading last week, slid out of the top seven after the second day's trading.
But conversely, main Chinese wool buyer Tianyu, which did not make the top seven buyers the first day, was back on the list in sixth place after the second day.
This week the WWC is scheduled to continue with two trading days like the Melbourne and Sydney wool centres.
It is listed to offer a total of 6560 bales over the two days, 1235 bales more than it actually offered last week, but new season wool is starting to come through at auction and brokers claim it offers better style and specification and should be in demand.
Nationally AWEX will offer a total of 34,450 bales this week, a jump of 3428 on what was offered last week.
