The recent recovery in the US exchange rate has seen the EMI rise by 62¢ in US terms since the end of August compared with a 23¢ rise in Australian Currency. The EMI in US terms (802¢) is 107¢ above the 2002/03 peak of 695¢.
It was another good market this week, with a 17¢ lift in the EMI, despite the 2.4% increase in the United States exchange rate. Price rises were seen across all Merino micron ranges, with a good Newcastle offering attracting keen demand and some good prices for the better types.
With the fine wool sale in Newcastle and significant quantities of fine wool in the South and the West, medium wools were in restricted supply and in good demand. Average AWEX Micron Price Guides were up by 10¢ clean for 16.5 microns wools, by 27¢ for 17.0 microns, by 15 to 20¢ for 17.5 to 19.5 microns, 29¢ for 20.0 microns and by around 20¢ up to 24 microns apart from a 12¢ increase for 22.0 micron wools. Merino skirtings continued to be in strong demand, as were oddments (the Merino Cardings average MPG was up by 27¢).
Fine crossbred were down marginally, whereas coarse crossbreds picked up on Tuesday, finishing the week with their average MPG up 13¢.
There was a dominant presence by buyers for Italy with the sale in Newcastle this week. However, there was also other good demand from Europe. There was also a noticeable presence of buyers for China this week, although there is still no resolution of the quota issues yet. There is no further news on this issue at the moment.
Sales will be held in Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle next week, when 59,769 bales are currently rostered for sale. Present estimates for the following three sales vary from 40,500 to 59,800 bales, a decrease of 10.8% over the four sale period when compared with last year.
In South African sales, the Cape Wools Indicator was up by 5.2% since last week, against a 1.1% appreciation of the Rand against the US Dollar and an unchanged value against the Euro.
Australian Wool Innovation Limited
marketing@alchempro.com
