ANY wool market boost a leaders' handshake last month may have provided, disappeared last week when major Chinese cities, including Shanghai, went back into COVID lockdown.
According to AWN State wool and livestock manager Greg Tilbrook, buyer demand at the Western Wool Centre (WWC) dried up when news of the Shanghai COVID lockdown broke.
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"One of the buyers brought the news into the saleroom and when it went around everyone quickly put the cue back in the rack," Mr Tilbrook said.
Some of Western Australia's wool customers are located close to Shanghai and as a major port, it provides access to processors, so a lockdown of any length can disrupt the wool supply chain, hence buyer hesitancy.
They do not want to pay for wool stuck on a boat because it cannot be unloaded in Shanghai.
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Sudden spikes in bale numbers offered at the WWC and nationally last week - driven by solid price rises the week before - also did not help woolgrowers' cause in trying to hang on to improved prices.
The WWC fleece passed-in rate blew out from under 10 per cent the previous week to almost 34pc last week on a combination of lack of bidding competition and woolgrower reluctance to accept lower prices.
According to Australian Wool Exchange (AWEX), 19 and 21 micron Merino fleece price guides last week lost the exact amount they had gained the previous week, while 18, 19.5 and 20 micron guides lost more, so went backwards.
The 18.5 micron guide lost 58 cents per kilogram clean last week, but managed to hang on to 18c of the previous week's gain - the only WWC price guide to achieve that - while Merino cardings marked time at 906c/kg.
The Western Market Indicator slipped 38c to 1370c/kg.
Endeavour Wool Exports, PJ Morris Wools and Techwool Trading continued to swap positions at the top of the WWC buyers' list.
This week, the WWC offering may shrink by 426 bales to 7592, but the national offering is likely to continue climbing unless 7428 bales are pulled from sale at the last minute.
Gross turnover of $171 million from wool sales at the WWC so far this season is $6m up on the same time last season, but the main Melbourne wool centre's turnover is down $39m.
Melbourne's trading has dragged national wool sales turnover back to $964m for the season so far - $32m behind last season.
