MORE brokers passed-in wool this week as auction prices fell back across the country.

The Australian Wool Exchange said minimal daily market fluctuations finished with a small overall fall for the week.

The national offering rose to 38,425 bales, 5059 bales more than the previous week, and the passed-in rate rose 3.8 percent to 9.3pc.

“In the Merino fleece sector, price results were mixed across microns,” AWEX said.

“The movements in the individual Merino Price Guides across the country ranged between plus 10 and minus 22 cents.

“The benchmark AWEX Eastern Market Indicator added one cent on the first day before dropping three cents on the second for a two-cent overall fall for the series, closing at 1142c/kg clean.”

AWEX said the last 18 daily movements in the EMI have been less than 10 cents, 17 of these have been by 5 cents or less.

“The average daily movement of the EMI across these 18 selling days has been less 3 cents, taking both negative and positive movements into account.

“Of the 18 daily market movements, 10 have been positive and of these 10 EMI increases, five have been by just one cent,” AWEX said.

“Over the past 12 months broader fleece types have performed better than their finer counterparts, so much so that some of the crossbred fleece MPGs are at higher points than a year ago.”

AWEX said comparisons are best made using the southern MPGs.

“The 17 micron MPG is currently 1693 cents compared to 1855 cents at the corresponding sale of the previous season, a drop of 162 cents.

“The 18 micron MPG has fallen by 106 cents, 19 micron by 51 cents, 20 micron by 25 cents and 21 micron by just 14 cents,” AWEX said.

“When we get into the crossbreds the news is more positive, despite the falls recorded in this series.

“The 26 micron MPG is 25 cents higher, 28 micron is 45 cents higher, 30 micron is 33 cents higher and 32 micron is 10 cents higher.”

Caution in the Merino sector – AWI

Australian Wol Innovation trade consultant Scott Carmody said auctions were a rather lacklustre affair this week.

Mr Carmody said after a promising start to the week’s activity with most types trading to the sellers’ favour, the close to this week’s physical markets was operating under a degree of caution within the Merino sector.

“Most types began to falter and resulted in 5-10 cent falls.

“Crossbred types acted contrarily to the Merino’s and opened cheaper, but thence hit stronger competition to close slightly dearer,” he said.

“Carding types traded dearer throughout.”

Mr Carmody said the Zhangjiagang Wool Industrial Association held its wool conference last weekend.

“Zhangjiagang is by far the largest wool processing city globally. The demand signals emanating from the delegates were downbeat, but the Chinese manufacturing sector remains faithful to Australian wool,” he said.

ZWIA chairman Dr Michel Ji said domestic market demand is insufficient and China’s foreign markets face many obstacles.

“Life is tough, but we live every day; business is hard, but we do it every year,” he said.

Youngor Wool Textile general manager Mr Zhou said uniform fabrics saw most orders cancelled due to policy changes starting in the second quarter.

“Next year is expected to be a “big year” for uniform fabrics, as large enterprises may shift from importing to domestic procurement. “

Conference host Mike Chu summed up by saying: “To expand wool applications, we need to develop wool’s unique and functional characteristics and promote it effectively”.

Next week there is expected to be 39,896 bales on offer nationally.

Sources – AWEX, AWI,