MORE wool sold for more money in Australian auctions this week, as evidence of a broader cross-section of buyers continued a record run of price benchmark rises in recent weeks.

The Australian Wool Exchange said the Australian wool market continued its climb this week, recording overall increases for the fifth consecutive series.

“After not selling in the previous week, the Fremantle region returned this week.

“This return, combined with last week’s price increases enticing more sellers to the market, pushed the national quantity up to 42,496 bales, an increase of 6,208 bales,” AWEX said.

“The larger offering received excellent buyer support from the opening lot, pushing prices higher.

“This support continued to the final hammer, resulting in a steady increasing of price levels as the sale progressed.”

AWEX said all Merino types and descriptions, across all the entire micron spectrum enjoyed the rises.

“The individual merino fleece Micron Price Guides (MPGs) in the Eastern centres added between 45 and 129 cents for the series.

“The southern 16.5 MPG indicator has now rallied for 11 consecutive selling days, adding 365 cents over this period.”

AWEX said the run of gains is a new record for this indicator since it was introduced in 2006. As the Fremantle region did not enjoy the large increases of the previous series, the rises in the Western MPGs were even more significant, lifting between 94 and 132 cents.

“The gains in the merino fleece MPGs across the country, combined with increases in all other sectors, helped to push the AWEX Eastern Market Indicator (EMI) up by 55 cents, closing the week at 1448 cents/kg clean,” AWEX said.

“The EMI has now risen for 12 consecutive selling days, adding 142 cents across these sales.”

AWEX said the skirtings also recorded strong gains.

“General price rises of between 60 and 120 cents were realised, wool finer than 18 micron most affected.”

Fremantle does not sell again in the following week, with only Melbourne and Sydney in operation and the national offering has fallen to 34,600 bales. This will be the final sale of the current season and last for the 2020/21 financial year.

Evidence of more competition for wool – AWI

Australian Wool Innovation trade consultant Scott Carmody said 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 percent increase compared to April 2020,” he said.

“Similarly, the Czech republic also lifted 519pc 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.”

Mr Carmody said the United States also lifted its intake for the month of April by 160pc 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.”

Mr Carmody said local traders and top makers dominated the Merino fleece and skirting sectors, as offshore 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.”

The South African wool market is now in recess for eight weeks.

Sources: AWEX, AWI.