 The wool market is looking for a negative trend disrupter, and at this point there is no clear vision of what that could be.
Despite the reports of large investment in new processing plants the reports of stock levels and consumer demand emerging from China (who purchase about 80% of the Australian Wool clip), does not instill a lot of confidence of an imminent recovery. In fact, the entire pipeline was grappling with inflation and the rising costs, which is not auguring well for improvements at retail. It looks unlikely a price recovery in the short term. My thoughts are if there was to be a price recovery based on new demand it may not materialise until 2024. A sobering thought when you consider the EMI sits 20% below the same time last year This week Sydney and Melbourne have an estimated offering of 33,463 bales. The early market intelligence would indicate that the downward trend will continue to disappoint sellers. The AWEX EMI closed the week out on 1174c down 34c at auction sales in Australia this week. After a week off, Fremantle joined Sydney and Melbourne offering 39,776 bales of which a mere 76.8% were sold. After the 6th successive price loss in the EMI the national pass in rate was heavily influenced by the 32.5% of the Western Australians who had two weeks of market falls to digest. Sydney passed in 17.4% whilst Melbourne sellers refused the price on 21.6%. The weaker tone in the market was being predicted towards the later part of last week as Chinese interest to book any meaningful quantity was well known. This resulted in the EMI falling 21c on Wednesday and another 13c on Thursday. Merino Fleece experienced a substantial downward price rebasing with the largest falls measured in the 16.5-18.0 MPG’s which fell 149c. Lesser falls were experienced in the 18.5µ and coarser merino Fleece. Best style and specified lots that suited the Italian spinners made 100’s of cents above the average value. Merino Skirtings whilst weaker were at times in conflict with the fleece market with falls of 15-30c measured throughout the week |
| Crossbred combing wools showed little or no change for the reducing volumes of suitable crossbred offering over the week. Lots outside the specifications were difficult to sell.
Merino Cardings experienced substantial falls averaging 16c across all centres. Demand in this sector has been extremely thin over the past few months. -Marty Moses, Moses and Son |