THE physical wool market post-Christmas opening week’s rally flowed into online wool sales last week, Wooltrade market operations officer Tom Rookyard said today.

Mr Rookyard said Wooltrade sold just under 1300 bales of growers’ wool throughout the week.

He said very keen demand lifted the AWEX Southern Market Indicator by 23 cents, after Merino wools rose by an average of 40 cents and crossbreds by an average of 5 cents.

“When Sydney and Fremantle joined on Wednesday, their quotes pushed the surge by a further 10 cents to bring the AWEX Eastern Market Indicator to 1289 cents clean.

“On Thursday prices retracted somewhat to leave the EMI closing at 1282c/kg,’ he said.

“This is the highest point the market has closed at since early August.”

On Wooltrade, 17 micron wools sold up to 1576c/kg clean and 18 micron fleece wool made to 1516c/kg. Clips in the 20 micron category sold to 1463c/kg and 21 micron fleece made to 1414c/kg.

The top priced lot this week was a line of 15.1 micron wool, 74mm long and with 1.7 percent vegetable matter content. The SupAAA weaners fleece was branded LOGIE and offered by Roberts Tasmania.

Mr Rookyard said fine Merino skirting’s drew buyer interest with a 14.4µ micron Merino line, 66mm long and with 2.1pc vm, making 1100c/kg greasy or 1491c/kg clean. This lot was branded BELTANA and offered by Landmark Victoria.

“Looking forward, a substantial volume of wool is being offered across all three selling centres over the next three consecutive weeks,” he said.

This week an estimated 57,000 bales being offered across the nation will no doubt test the market, Mr Rookyard said.

“What’s more, the weak Chinese stock market may impact on the confidence of many overseas mills.

“On a positive note, the Chinese New Year is only three weeks away and traditionally this can draw renewed demand,” he said.

‘In addition to this, the Australian vs US dollar exchange rate is at a seven-year low, which will allow Australian wool to be exported at attractive levels.

“The upcoming three weeks pose a very interesting period for the Australian wool market.”

Click here for the latest Wooltrade top prices summary.

Sources: Wooltrade, AWEX.