 Merino Fleece saw a “Topsy Turvey” performance last week with a generally solid start on selected superfine and spinners lots 17 and finer, which appreciated in price by 10-15c.
As the bulk of the fleece offering make up filtered through the two day sale series it was more evident that business conditions remain difficult, and that the primary exporter competition was driven by the large trading exporters, came from Indents from Italy China and India. There were some positive results emulating from the medium and broader MPG’s which added up to 15c-17c for the 20 and 21 MPG’s. After trading up around .65c the AUD ended up closing the week at .63c but had exporters guessing for most of the week. The weakness was attributed to the RBA announcing that they were holding the current rate of 4.1% under the RBA’s new chair’s first official rate review. Despite the appearance of a steady EMI the bulk of the merino MPG’s took a heavy price hit giving back 10-30c from last week’s levels. Conversely Crossbreds were the market darlings adding 25-30c on the volume MPG’S. Skirtings remained in line with their fleece counterparts with the superfine FNF brokens (classed pieces) being keenly chased for the spinner types. Lots containing heavy VM struggles a little more this week with most other types giving back 5-10c for the week. |
| Crossbreds continued their progressive price increase which has been the trend for a few months and getting back to prices not seen since August 2021. It is interesting to see the 29µ quotes dearer than the 27µ fleece quotes. I believe the current weeks surge is related to mid-October shipment deadlines which mean purchases this week are the last opportunity to achieve the delivery deadlines. This may explain the inverted quotes.
Merino Cardings continued to trade sideways with the noticeably increased activity on merino lambs and best style and bulk merino crutchings. Any short wool types containing hard heads (Bathurst & Noogoora Burr) are becoming increasingly difficult to sell with limited competition on these lots. Crossbred oddments remain difficult to sell at levels that cover the cost of testing and handling. Commentary Conversely there are strong signals that sustainability is now top of mind for our target consumer. The latest Woolmark campaign to address this has recently been released, aptly named “Filter by Fabric” Filter by Fabric (woolmark.com) Clever positioning of our wonderful natural sustainable fibre. This week offering is estimated at 42,266 bales nationally. I think we can expect more of the same conservative purchasing as we await some increased activity to emerge from China which does not seem likely in the short term. ~Marty Moses |