Pack-Tainers owners Mark and Brett Wilson have a big warehouse to fill with wool. Image – supplied.

A NEW wool dumping facility in Melbourne opening next Monday expects to help clear a backlog of bales for containerisation within six weeks.

A shortage of wool containerization capacity has created financing issues for some traders and exporters, impacting auction demand and prices.

Australia’s two remaining wool dumpers – Pack-Tainers and the AWH business Wooldumpers Australia in Laverton North have had insufficient capacity to alleviate a 30,000-40,000 bale backlog for containerization during the peak sale season. This was due to the early closure of the Winnipeg facility in October 2022.

However, Pack-Tainers co-owner Mark Wilson said his new containerization facility in Mt Derrimut Road, Laverton North, will open its doors on Monday.

“It’s a big empty shed at the moment, getting ready to welcome wool.

“We’ve got the site up and going and next week will be a bit of a teething issue, but I think we will be fully operational the following week.”

The new facility has the capacity to handle 4000 bales a day, although Mr Wilson doesn’t think the industry will need that.

“Whilst we are in backlog I will use it – it should be enough the swallow up the backlog of work that AWH and us couldn’t get done before.”

Mr Wilson said he expected it would take about six weeks to clear the backlog.