AUSTRALIA’S wool auction market has recorded its third consecutive loss on the final sale before the mid-year recess, weighed down by increased supplies.

The Australian Wool Exchange said brokers this week offered 55,210 bales, 6350 more than last week, in the catalogue in 29 months.

“Combined with the last sale, the first two weeks of the season offered 104,070 bales, which made it the largest opening fortnight to a wool selling season in 18 years.”

AWEX said although the wool on offer received good overall buyer support, the prices being achieved steadily declined over the first two days of selling.

“Main buyer support continued to be in the good style higher yielding types, particularly those possessing favourable additional measurement results.

“These types were the least affected by the falling market, as opposed to the lesser style types,” AWEX said.

“The falls in the merino fleece combined with losses in the skirtings, crossbred and oddment sectors pushed the AWEX Eastern Market Indicator (EMI) down by 20 cents on the first day and then by a further 6 cents on the second.

“Despite a week-on-week fall of 19 cents the EMI goes into the three-week recess on a positive note after rising 7 cents on the final day of selling,” AWEX said.

AWEX said it was a Melbourne-only roster on Thursday and the rise snapped a six-day losing streak, the longest in almost four months.

“There continues to be very strong interest in some specialty non-mulesed types, and buyers are prepared to pay large premiums to secure these wools.”

An example of this was a line of 20.2 micron wool which sold for 1,774 cents clean, this line attracted a premium of over 330 cents as similar type and spec mulesed lots were selling for around 1,430 cents.

The market pauses from next week for the annual mid-year three-week recess. Sales will resume in Week 6, the week beginning Monday the 8th of August.

Source: AWEX.