Merino fleece wool between 18 and 19 micron sold strongly on Wooltrade last week.

Wooltrade market operations manager Tony Benson said the top 18 micron line sold for 1316c/kg clean, about 40 cents above the AWEX Micron Price Guide for similar wools.

The top price was for nine bales of Merino weaner wool measuring 66.5 percent yield, 0.9pc vegetable matter content (VM), 72mm staple length and 41 Newtons/kilotex of strength.

“Our top price 19 micron Merino fleece lot sold for 1266 cents clean, some 44 cents above the indicator with 2.7pc VM, 62.4pc yield, 88mm length and 31 Newtons/kilotex strength.”

20 micron wool also sold above AWEX MPG

Mr Benson said 20 micron fleece sold for up to 1201c/kg clean, some 20 cents above the MPG and even 21 micron Merino fleece wool made up to 1177c/kg clean or 11 cents above the indicator. Superfine Merino skirtings to 15.7 microns with some vegetable matter sold for up to 1158c/kg clean and carbonising lots received attention, with 480-586c/kg greasy buying short lambs up to 30mm staple length.

Mr Benson said the wool market certainly put on a show during last week, with healthy increases for most Merino types of up to 25 cents above the AWEX MPGs.

“But looking at results on Wooltrade may suggest an even larger increase might have occurred last week if you use more scrutiny on the wool specifications that were getting the premium prices.

“Having a mid-break below 60pc and a Co-efficient of Variation of Hauteur of less than 50pc, with decent results for strength, length and yield could have added 50-60c/kg clean for 18 and 19 micron wool,” he said.

“I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we really have a two-sided market; one that is rewarding handsomely for good specs and discounting severely for poorer results.

“It’s how the market is operating at the moment, but the season has changed the amount of quality wools usually seen after the spring shearing and in turn pushed up prices for the better test results.”

Wool market to be tested by bigger offerings

Mr Benson said there is no doubt about the positive sentiment about the wool market over the last couple of weeks, but there are two 50,000 bale weeks on the horizon.

“One wonders how the market will swallow up that volume.”

Source: Wooltrade.