WA wool market reverses trend with Merino fleece types down 27-59 cents

It was a “complete reversal” of results at the Western Wool Centre for Week 12 of the selling season, with prices dropping between 27-59 cents and pushing the passed in rate up to 10.1 per cent nationwide.

While the national offering was up 868 bales on Week 11, with 42,287 bales available for trade, the Australian wool market has been unable to continue to improve, “recording an overall loss this series” on September 18-20.

Australian Wool Exchange senior market analyst Lionel Plunkett said the fall was driven by losses in most Merino fleece types — which resulted in the Western Market Indicator closing at 1272 cents per kilogram, down 27c on the previous sale.

“In a complete reversal of the trend seen at the close of Week 10, the Western region selling last recorded the largest falls of the week,” Mr Plunkett said.

“The Western merino fleece MPGs closed the week between 27-59c lower.

“As expected, the reduction in prices pushed the passed in rate higher, as sellers became reluctant to accept the lower levels.”

The passed in rate rose by five per cent, with 10.1 per cent of the national offering failing to reach seller reserve.

Despite the price drop, Australian Wool Innovation reported some new season specialty super fine wools were on offer and Italian buying saw much of that flow through to their dominant demands.

“Handy premiums of up 130-160c were available for those sale lots meeting the stringent tested and visual requirements,” an AWI spokesman said.

The overall sale result, however, was in stark contrast to Week 11 which resulted in “all sectors recording either increased or unchanged levels” compared to the previous selling series.

The increased demand during Week 11 resulted in the Eastern Market Indicator adding 21c for the week, “the largest weekly rise in the EMI since Week 1” (July 5), when the EMI opened the season with a 36c increase.

The EMI fell to its lowest point (1118c/kg) since October 2020 in August, before rising for three consecutive selling days, adding 30 cents across the sales, which was a 2.7 per cent increase.

The EMI closed Week 12 at 1184c/kg.

The AWI spokesman said grower sellers were keen to take the better prices on offer “as witnessed by the 95.5 per cent sold figure” for Week 11.

“This is one of the highest weekly clearance rates for some time,” the spokesman said.

“This adds weight to the current trend by sellers to accept buyers bids.

“For the season a very high 90.5 per cent of all wool offered has been sold — this suggests current wool values are very attractive compared to other on farm production enterprises at present.”