- EMI closed 1217c/kg, -24c
- Northern: 1239c/kg, -26c
- Southern: 1202c/kg, -24c
- Western: 1278c/kg, -34c
THE rising Australian dollar continues to bruise the wool market which received a softened blow of 24 cents last week.
The Australian dollar rose to a ten month high of US78cents last week, while the Eastern Market Indicator (EMI) dropped to the lowest price since October and closed at 1217 cents per kilogram.
AWEX senior market analyst Lionel Plunkett said the EMI rose from 888- 951c in US currency, however fell from 1282-1217c in Australian currency over the same period.
“The (rising) dollar could have influenced the price drop,” Mr Plunkett said.
“Speaking to some of the exporters, they were saying it was more difficult to sell wool with the dollar above US78c.”
While there were 46,800 bales rostered for sale last week, only 42,082 were offered nationally.
Woolgrowers reacted to the subdued prices by passing in 15.2 per cent, or 6,400 bales.
“We will see those bales come back at some stage but for those weeks when the market was falling, a lower clearance rate helped maintain activity in the catalogue,” Mr Plunkett said.
The changes in average AWEX Merino Price Guides (MPG) were smallest at the fine end, which were back about 14c, and were greatest from 20-23 microns, which were down 29-31c.
Merino skirtings moved in line with the Merino fleece, while crossbred average MPGs were generally down.
Oddments were down on both days, with the average Merino Cardings Price Guide down by 3.6pc.
This year’s average EMI floats at 1247c/kg, an increase of 145c/kg on last year’s av.
Mr Plunkett said this week’s sales launched the week with a healthy 15-30c rise during early trading at Sydney Melbourne on Wednesday.
“The hot news is the market is having a turnaround this week,” he said.
“We are coming up to that period of lower supply.
“Exporters would be aware the next few months the volumes will drift off so we would hope to see some renewed enthusiasm from buyers.”
With another week of such a high pass in rate, there was minimal buyer participation online on Wooltrade with only 48 bales traded.
Wooltrade market operations supervisor Tom Rookyard said while there had been swift losses at auction of 53c, “the bottom must be near”.
“The gains made on Thursday (last week) signalled the market may be poised to stabilize or even rise,” Mr Rookyard said.
There are 39,000 bales rostered for sale this week.
