ONLINE wool sales slumped last week as the physical market had its most significant fall in almost two months.

Wooltrade market operations supervisor Tom Rookyard said the AWEX Eastern Market Indicators 26-cent fall to 1270c/kg clean last week was the largest market fall since early April.

“Some pundits are suggesting that this was inevitable, with the escalating exchange rate seen as the trigger.

“The high pass in rate at the auctions in Sydney and Melbourne indicated that buyers were quite able to fill their demands at the auctions, with wool to spare,” he said.

“Online Wooltrade saw minimal buyer activity with the market dropping.

“Only 20 bales of grower wool were traded.”

Mr Rookyard said the majority of last week’s losses were made on Wednesday.

“Ideally this would be seen as the market making one major adjustment dropping to levels that overseas mills are keen to buy at.

“The Australian/US dollar exchange rate has opened slightly lower this week, which should help the market.”

Mr Rookyard said the wool supply into Sydney is somewhat restricted due to recent wet weather and perhaps the market slippage, with only 10,000 bales available. The Melbourne roster shows about 18,000 bales and Fremantle comes back on line this week with 6000 bales.

“Financial end of year figures often cause quantity fluctuations at this point of the year,” he said.

Click here to read the latest Wooltrade Top Prices Summary.

Source: Wooltrade.