The reduced offering of 34,498 bales apparently signalled some pre-sale supply panic and exporters exploded out of the blocks on Tuesday pushing the merino MPG’s up to 90c dearer.
As you would expect, the bullish tone increased the clearance rate to a creditable 94.3%. Unfortunately there was no continuity in the positive emotion and whilst most fleece lots held up reasonably well on Wednesday, the fleece support thinned out as the large Chinese processers tried to support the new price levels. The increase in the Foreign Exchange AUD/USD from 1.49 to 74.86 USc pushed the EMI up 54c in USD to 1369c/kg.
Merino Fleece shot up 80-90c for the 17.5 – 21.0 MPG’s on Tuesday with small retracement of 0 to 17c on Wednesday. The 16.5-17.0 MPG’s rose 50-58c on Tuesday before giving back 19-27c on Wednesday. As in previous weeks, the fleece lots suitable for Italian and Indian orders led the charge for premiums, especially the NM CM lots Certified in Integrity schemes.
The premiums were, at times, lost in the frenzied bidding however this trend of price premiums for well specified and classed lots certified in Integrity Scheme remains notable.
Merino Skirtings followed the fleece price up and despite some exporters completely withdrawing support on Wednesday, the skirts were able to maintain their Tuesday’s price levels.
Crossbred fleece and skirtings experienced price rises of 5-20c, however the prices retraced almost all of their gains on Wednesday.
Merino Cardings saw the Northern MC increase by 8c, the southern MC fall by 6c and the western MC increase by a whopping 54c, gaining 42c on Tuesday. Crossbred oddments remain awful and many bids remain below the cost of selling
Next week’s offering has been pushed up to 45,755 bales being offered in Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle. Unfortunately the early market intelligence looks like there is an imminent fall in price for the Merino Fleece sector by 20-30c, whilst the skirts and crossbreds may be more affected by the strong currency, maybe losing 10c-15c.
-Marty Moses, Moses and Son