Wooltrade sales were steady throughout last week with some late trading on Friday night as buyers hunted for wool with premium specifications, market operations manager Tony Benson said.

Buyers were looking for wool combining low mid-break and high tensile strength and were willing to pay for it, he said.

“A rather bizarre week in the wool market with the AWEX Eastern Market Indicator (EMI) dipping 13c only to recover 6 cents on Thursday but forward indicators are still quite positive going into November.”

Mr Benson said Wooltrade’s top price for the week was a best style Australian superfine fleece lot measuring 15.9 microns that was offered by Elders Rural Services in Victoria. “Branded EML/GLENHOLME this lot had 0.2 percent vegetable matter, 74.2pc yield, 85mm staple length, 33 Newtons/kilotex tensile strength and made 1348c/kg clean.

“A very similar lot from NSW made 1,341c/kg, but was slightly longer,” Mr Benson said.

The 17-19 micron Merino fleece received attention on Wooltrade, with the 17 micron lines averaging 1314c/kg, with an extraordinary top price of 1391c/kg for a 17.7 micron lot.

The 18 micron fleece averaged 1190c/kg, with a top price of 1201c/kg for an 18.8u line. The 19 and 20 micron merino fleece sold for an average of 1130c/kg, but the best lots sold for up to 1160c/kg.

Mr Benson said it was good to see some volatility in the market place as this drives speculators to participate and to take a position.

“It also gives growers who list wool on Wooltrade a greater chance to have their reserve met when the market is in an upswing as we saw on Thursday.

Mr Benson said the major influence on the wool market this week was the sharply falling Australian-US dollar exchange rate, down US1.5 cents on Wednesday night.

“In recent years the dollar’s effect on the wool market has decreased, but large shifts can still cause short term disturbances and move the market.”

Source: Wooltrade