WOOLTRADE prices stabilised last week as the physical auction market’s descent slowed.

Wooltrade market operations officer Tom Rookyard said it appears the Australian wool market might have stabilized and found some level ground.

The AWEX Eastern Market Indicator dropped 32 cents to finish at 1231 cents by the end of last week.

After an inconsistent auction on Wednesday, prices in the physical auctions closed on Thursday with the 18-19 micron wool only dropping by 4-5 cents and the 20-21 micron wool falling by 10-12 cents, he said.

Mr Rookyard said prices for coarser microns in the north looked to have levelled, but Merino cardings suffered the greatest drop of 34-36 cents.

Wooltrade prices stabilised, with 18 micron fleece making 1387-1392c/kg, while 20 micron wools sold up to 1286 cents, he said.

Wooltrade’s top price was 1455c/kg for a six-bale 16.4 micron lot branded Wilmont Vale, offered by Roberts Tasmania. The lot had a yield of 75.6 percent, a staple length of 92mm, tensile strength of 38 Newtons/kilotex and 0.3pc vegetable matter content.

Mr Rookyard said with the physical auctions having a 10pc pass-in rate across both selling days last week, some brokers took advantage of the 24-hour Wooltrade offer board.

An estimated 42,000 bales of wool will be offered in the final physical auction for the season this week.

“This reduction of offering should ease the downward pressure on the market and help to close the market stable before the three-week recess,” he said.

Click here to see Wooltrade’s top prices for last week.

Source: Wooltrade.