THE WOOL industry has continued on its record-breaking run, with the industry benchmark Eastern Market Indicator (EMI) hitting new heights.
On Wednesday last week, the EMI set a new record, reaching 1834 cents per kilogram for the day, surpassing the previous 1822c/kg record set in January.
The EMI dropped four cents on the second day, closing at 1830c/kg for the week, which is 10 cents up on last week.
Elders southern district wool manager Elliot Lindley said this record price is a big deal for the wool industry.
“We’ve never been there before, so it proves there is confidence in the marketplace for exporters to purchase wool even though there is a greater offering in the marketplace,” Mr Lindley said.
Fox & Lillie technical and marketing manager Eamon Timms agreed, saying it was a “huge signal that the market is in a really healthy place at the moment”.
Records were also broken in the 21 and 22 micron sales, with the 21 micron category averaging a 20.6c/kg rise across the three selling centres, and 22 micron range averaging a 35.6c/kg rise.
Mr Timms said these micron categories were “playing a bit of catch up”.
“We saw really strong pricing on the 21 and 22 micron categories last week, and as far as the Merinos went, it was the strongest performing part of the market,” Mr Timms said.
“Buyers are feeling a bit of pressure as far as cash flow is concerned, and were changing some of their buying interests to broader microns where their cash will get them more material.
“Towards the end of the week, people were slowing down their buying slightly, but there still remained a lot of interest in the 21 and 22 micron markets.”
The total number of bales offered was up by 2,481 bales on last week, totalling 44,150 for the week, which included increased offerings of superfine wool.
“The Italians were competing vigorously to secure some of those beautiful, sound superfine wools, in its designated sale last week,” Mr Timms said.
He said woolgrowers are in a powerful position, with the market not showing any signs of slowing down.
“Historically, there are always people that are happy to hang onto wool, and sell later, but now with prices so attractive, people are happy to sell now and put the money in the bank straight away,” he said.
“There are some people who have concerns about supply getting quite light in April, May and June, and are probably buying now because they are concerned about volume dropping, but there’s no real signals to indicate that the market’s got any significant downsides coming.”