Australian wool auctions posted considerable gains this week across all types and descriptions once more. All Merino combing wools were between 50ac and 100ac dearer, whilst crossbreds and cardings were a general 25ac higher in value by the close of selling. Significantly, the market closed at the highest point of the week, with no pullback apparent by the close of selling.

The Eastern Market Indicator (EMI) gained 55ac for the week to be 4% higher at the close to 1448ac clean/kg. This is a rise of over 100ac for the past fortnight and has added 7.7% to the average raw wool value. For the first week in some time, the market was also aided by the weakening AUD:USD forex rate (-1.4%) which saw the USD EMI add 27usc to climb over the 1100usc mark to a closing indicator of 1105usc clean/kg. 

The Fremantle selling centre, which was in recess last week, immediately caught up with the Eastern centres by adding a general 130ac on all its individual micron price guide indicators. The Western Market Indicator (WMI) was 92ac dearer for the week to close at 1477ac clean/kg. The closing quotes across the quality spectrum aligned pretty closely with the eastern centres. 

The anecdotal evidence at auction of more competition was borne out by the April ABS export figures just released. These figures showed that India imported over 1.2million kgs of greasy wool for the month of April which is a 623% increase compared to April 2020. Similarly, the Czech republic also lifted 519% to an April 2021 import amount of 640,000kg compared to last April. These increases show how little wool was being imported in April last year.

The USA also lifted their intake for the month of April by 160% year-on-year, with a bit less than half of the month’s import of 140,000kg being greasy wool. Korea, UK, Turkey and Germany also improved over April 12 months prior and all of those destinations and took their entire import of 940,000kgs of Australian wool in the semi processed (carbo or scour) wool state.

Local traders and top makers dominated the Merino fleece and skirting sector, as off shore indents and traders were often pushed to the side due to the rapidly ascending market prices. The giant European top maker dominated the crossbred sector and purchased consistently throughout. The carding sector had most of the regular participants active, but the largest manufacturer of wools within the oddment segment failed to appear near the top of buyers lists for the second week running.

Just shy of 35,000 bales is on offer next week at Sydney and Melbourne only as Fremantle sits out. South Africa is in recess for 8 weeks