WOOL prices put on a surprising spurt on the final Western Wool Centre (WWC) trading day last week to finish the calendar year and mark the halfway point of the selling season strongly.
Brokers had struggled on the second last day of trading to achieve prices woolgrowers wanted, with demand softening across the sale and fleece prices sliding between 19 and 25 cents across micron segments as the WWC live auctions progressed.
Merino cardings also lost 22c and the Western Market Indicator (WMI) shed 20c to slip 3c below the 1400c per kilogram clean benchmark it had managed to remain on top of since the last sale in November.
The fleece passed-in rate blew out from under 10 per cent the previous week, to 18pc on the day and several selling brokers commented they were glad not to be selling on the final day, where they expected price slides to be worse and demand even softer.
Some wool buyers also seemed only half joking when they suggested the final trading day should be cancelled because no one was interested in buying wool on the final day and having to pay storage on it for the annual three-week WWC trading recess and however long into the new year it took to complete the order.
But WWC fleece prices finished the first trading day of the final week significantly cheaper than comparable micron fleece offerings at the Melbourne and Sydney Australian Wool Exchange (AWEX) selling centres.
The 20c loss on the day by the WMI compared to only a 3c loss by the benchmark Eastern Market Indicator.
Despite their jibes about cancelling the final trading day, some of the buyers must have noticed the WA price discounts, because the WWC final-day wool market went against dire predictions.
While the 19.5 micron price guide marked time at 1487c/kg clean, the other fleece segment guides added between 9c and 21c and the Merino cardings guide added 5c for the day.
The WMI climbed back above 1400c to finish the year at 1408c/kg - 210c/kg above where it had finished last year.
While the final-day spurt was not enough to recover all of the previous day's losses, it was a "positive" end to the year, AWEX technical controller at the WWC, Andrew Rickwood, pointed out in his regional market summary.
Also, net price guide losses over the final week's trading at the WWC were greater than small negative price movements recorded by only some micron price guides in Melbourne and Sydney on the final day, so WA wools will start the new year still at a significant discount to Eastern States' wools.
At 1996c/kg, the 18 micron WWC Merino fleece guide ended the year 412c above where it had started the year, but it still trailed Melbourne and Sydney finishing prices by 79c and 48c respectively.
The WWC 18.5 micron guide finished at 1835c/kg, up 374c on where it had started, but 21c and 25c behind Melbourne and Sydney, while the 19 micron guide finished at 1638c/kg, up 267c on its starting point, but still 44c and 42c behind Melbourne and Sydney prices.
Finishing at 1487c/kg, the 19.5 micron WWC guide was 172c above its start for the year and 16c and 32c behind Melbourne and Sydney, at 1354c/kg the 20 micron guide was 119c ahead of its year start and 29c and 26c behind Melbourne and Sydney and at 1305c/kg the 21 micron guide ended up 142c across the year and only 6c and 14c behind Melbourne and Sydney prices.
According to AWEX, gross wool sales turnover on the final WWC trading day for the year was $5.07 million, compared to $4.4m on the second last day,
At the halfway point of the selling season, national gross turnover at the three AWEX selling centres so far is $1.13 billion.
At the same point last season and with an extra week in the selling schedule, the gross national live auction wool sales turnover was $799.49m.
Live wool auctions will resume at the WWC in the second week of January.
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