The Australian Wool Exchange (AWEX) Western Market Indicator (WMI) finished the week 128 cents a kilogram above its Eastern counterpart and even though it finished lighter on the final day of trading, the standout feature of last week's sale was the low pass in rate recorded.
The WMI rose by nine cents per kilogram on the first day to close at 1293c/kg, for the 3302 bales sold from a total offering of 3391 presented by sellers Dyson Jones, Nutrien Wool and Australian Wool Network.
Day one closed after having 397 bales withdrawn from the floor and a pass in rate of 11 per cent recorded.
The gains of the previous day were short lived as the WMI fell on Wednesday to finish six cents lighter at 1287c/kg, for the larger offering of 4026 bales sold amongst a total offering of 4361 from Westcoast Wools, Wool Agency and Elders.
The final day's figures included 182 bales withdrawn, but it was the excellent clearance results that really stood out, with a mere five per cent pass in rate Western Wool Centre.
Maintaining a common trend, oddments; locks, stains and crutchings, attracted strong support on both days and this resulted in a fully firm market which tended to the sellers favour.
Dyson Jones, state manager, Peter Howie, said their offering focussed on the broader wools.
"We had a good clearance," Mr Howie said.
"Mainly the broader wools, 19.5 and coarser, featured predominantly in our catalogue and they sold very well for the day."
He said they were still experiencing some resistance to these levels, especially from their fine wool growers.
"We still have quite a bit of wool on hold waiting for the market to lift," Mr Howie said.
"The catalogues are starting to get a bit dustier and lower yields are evident.
"This is due to summer clips being featured as spring clip numbers have gradually lessened in quantity."
The WA offering was a total of 7752 bales, of which 7032 sold, amongst the national total that reached 38,137 offered and 35,669 sold.
The top four buyers in Fremantle for the week were PJ Morris Wools, with 1408 WA bales and 2714 overall nationally, Techwool Trading, purchased 1303 WA bales amongst its 6749 total, Tianyu Wool had total off 2898 including 923 from Fremantle and Endeavour Wool Exports bought 1022 in WA and 3630 nationally for the week.
The Eastern Market Indicator (EMI) closed its cycle with a marginal one c/kg increase, its first distinctly positive movement after six selling series.
Supporting Mr Howies observations, the national market saw the 19.5 micron group perform strongly and any really good style wool that had favourable additional measurements and features, attracted very strong support.
AWEX's Andrew Rickwood said the market was stronger on the first selling day, the EMI adding four cents, the EMI closed day one at 1161c/kg.
The second day the market eased across all three selling centres.
The EMI gave back three cents of the first day's gain, closing the week one cent higher at 1158c/kg.
After rising last series in USD terms, currency movement has prevented the EMI from doing so again.
The EMI dropped four US cents, closing at 755 US cents.
Although the total amount of bales offered so far this season continues to track above the previous, the total dollar amount of wool sold is well down.
The $47.64 million sold this week, pushed the season to date total to $1,479 million.
This is $146 million dollars less than last season, with more wool sold.
Next week, a similar quantity is expected.
There are currently 41,154 bales rostered for sale nationally, with again only two selling days required and of this there are 9795 rostered for the WWC.
Tamara Hooper
Journalist with Farm Weekly newspaper WA.
Journalist with Farm Weekly newspaper WA.
