THE Australian wool market has suffered falls this week, with losses across all Merino, crossbred and oddment sectors.

The national offering increased to 40,546 bales, up 4801 over the previous week. The national offering continues to track well above the previous season. Compared to the corresponding sale of last year, there has been 96,951 more bales offered at auction, an increase of 33pc.

In the Merino fleece there was a noticeable softening of overall buyer sentiment, transferring into softer demand and as a result the prices that were achieved were well below that of the previous series.

Across the country the individual Micron Price Guides (MPGs) lowered by between 2c and 64c. These losses combined with falls in all other sectors of the market contributed to an overall fall in the benchmark AWEX Eastern Market Indicator (EMI) of 31c.

The EMI closed the week at 1337c, a reduction of 2.3 percent. Due to currency movement (the A$ lost nearly half a cent compared to the US$) when viewed in US$ terms the drop was slightly higher – the EMI lost US29c, closing at US963c, a fall of 2.9pc.

Understandably, the lower prices on offer were met with plenty of resistance from sellers, pushing the passed-in rate up to 22.5pc – 13.1pc higher than the previous week, where overall increases were recorded.

Worth noting, although the market recorded losses, there was positive signs toward the end of the series, so much so that on the second day in the West (selling last), the local MPGs recorded positive movements of between 1c and 54c.

The crossbred sector recorded the largest falls (in percentage terms) for the series. In the South the MPGs for 26 micron fell 57c (-7.2pc), 28 lost 25c (-5.6pc), while 32 micron dropped 20c (-7.9pc).

Click here to see the latest AWEX Micron Guides.

Source: AWEX