ONLINE wool sales increased last week, with buyers snapping up mainly suitable fine Merino fleece lines.

The AuctionsPlus online offer board sold 867 bales sold for the week.

The offer board sold 114 bales of 18 micron wool to a top of 1495c/kg greasy or 2106c/kg clean, and 125 bales of 19 micron wool to a top of 1380c/kg greasy or 1788c/kg clean.

The top-priced lot online this week was three bales of 15 micron Merino fleece wool with an average staple length of 69mm and 1.9 percent vegetable matter for 2335c/kg greasy or 3354c/kg clean.

The lot was offered by Nutrien Ag Solutions in Victoria and was branded “CHTL/GRY”.

The good online sales came in the last week of physical auction sales before a three-week recess.

The auction centres offered 49,003 bales and sold 42,441. The AWEX Eastern Market Indicator (EMI) rose 8 cents to close at 1428c/kg or US1065c/kg in US dollar terms.

The passed in rate rose slightly, up to 13.4pc from 12.6pc the previous week, suggesting that demand decreased at the same rate that supply did, AuctionsPlus said.

China remained the dominant buyer at physical selling centres due to their recent removal of an import quota. However, local and other international buyers provided a level of competition for the Chinese buyers, AuctionsPlus said.