Australian wool auctions resumed this week after the Easter recess. A cursory glance at the main indicators would lead to thoughts of the sales being a rather steady affair, but quite the contrary occurred as wildly differing fortunes had many individual types shifting value considerably, both to the positive and negative. 

The Eastern Market Indicator (EMI) closed the week 9ac lower at 1291ac clean/kg but the USD EMI took the opposite trajectory and appreciated 8usc to 996usc clean/kg largely on the back of the the Australian dollar strengthening by 1.5% against the USD compared to the pre Easter forex rates.

The recess certainly gave buyers and exporters the opportunity to refuel to some extent  their well used bank accounts. The massive wool export expenditure for February and March shipments (February exports to China up 64% year on year) were largely responsible for stress on bank accounts but that has got better now with funds coming back to Australia. The recess also allowed some of the outstanding logistics delays a chance to catch up, albeit only in a small way, as the current adverse issues around transport continue.

Super fine Merino fleece and skirting types finer than 18.5 micron came under strong buyer attention and general gains of up to 80ac were posted. Some individual lots exceeded the 100ac gain mark, but these lots were exhibiting superior specifications. The finer the sale lot combined with better specs,  the greater the rises were. With the prevailing season producing far better grazing conditions, the season has seen 15% less super fine wool (less than 18.5micron) tested through the AWTA. 

Conversely, the 19 to 22 micron area had all values in retreat, with general losses of 30 to 50ac prevailing, but once again those sale lots with better specifications - mainly higher yields and lower vm- were still cheaper for the week, but far less so. Cardings traded around the established prices whilst crossbred wool descriptions dropped 10 to 20ac.

There are around 45,000 bales scheduled to offer next week.