ONLINE wool sales took a sideways step last week, following the movements of the physical auction market.

Wooltrade market operations officer Tom Rookyard said the Australian wool market open stronger last Wednesday with the AWEX Eastern Market Indicator gaining 4 cents, but demand waned on Thursday and the EMI closed at 1285 c/kg clean.

“This is 1 cent high than last week — the market’s highest point since mid-January — and 195 cents higher than at this point last year.

“The strength on Wednesday can be attributed to a favourable exchange rate with a weakening Australian dollar versus the US dollar,” Mr Rookyard said.

He said 223 bales of grower’s wool were sold on Wooltrade last week. The top-priced lot was a four-bale line 15.9 micron super fine weaners’ fleece, with an average staple length of 81mm, tensile strength of 45 Newtons/kilotex, yield of 871.9 percent and 0.4pc vegetable matter content that made 1676c/kg clean or 1205c/kg greasy. It was branded D&N Mulgrave and offered by Australian Wool Network.

The top eight-bale line of 17 micron wool sold for 1557c/kg clean, or 962c/kg greasy, and yielded 61.8pc, was 82mm long, with a tensile strength of 43N/kt and 3.1pc vm.

A 10-bale line of 18.3 micron fleece with a yield of 67.4pc, length of 91mm, tensile strength of 35N/kt and 0.3pc vm sold for 1484c/kg clean, or 1000c/kg greasy.

A seven-bale line of 19.3 micron fleece with a yield of 64.2pc, length of 75mm, tensile strength of 31N/kt and 0.9pc vm made 1445c/kg clean, or 928c/kg greasy.

An eight-bale line of 20.8 micron wool sold for 1410c/kg clean, or 939c/kg greasy. The line yielded 66.6pc, was 97mm long, with a tensile strength of 29N/kt and 1.1pc vm.

A 16-bale line of 21.4 micron fleece wool sold for 1300c/kg clean or 854c/kg greasy. The line yielded 65.7pc, was 103mm long with a tensile strength of 35N/kt and had 3.8pc vm.

Fine crossbred wool sold to 1220c/kg clean or 850c/kg greasy for a five-bale line of 22.7 micron wool that yielded 69.7pc and had 0.8pc vm. A five-bale line of 24.9 micron wool with a yield of 78.4pc and 0.3pc vm sold for 1071c/kg clean or 840c/kg greasy.

Mr Rookyard said fine skirtings also drew buyer attention with a four-bale line of 16.6 micron Merino pieces, 77mm long with a yield of 60.7pc, tensile strength of 36N/kt and 1.7pc vm making 1367c/kg clean or 830c/kg greasy. It was branded MWD/AM and offered by Australian Wool Network.

Mr Rookyard said with just under 50,000 bales on offer this week in the three selling centres, the question is whether the dip in the market on Thursday will continue to flow onto this week or not.

Click here for last week’s Wooltrade Top Prices Summary

Source: Wooltrade.