Wool market up; mixed week for Oddments

The Australian wool market finished 2.1% higher, on average, at sales in Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle this week when the US exchange rate rose by a further 1.7% to 98.32¢ at the close on Thursday.

40,827 bales were on offer, compared with 40,861 bales last week. 5.1% were passed in, comprised of 4.6% in Sydney, 4.5% in Melbourne and 7.2% in Fremantle. Pass-in rates for Merino fleece and skirtings were 4.2% and 5.5%, respectively.

956 bales (2.3%) from the expected offering of 41,783 bales were withdrawn prior to sale and re-offered bales made up 10.0% of the final offering. 38,755 bales were cleared to the trade.

The New Zealand Merino Company also offered 3,352 bales in Melbourne on Tuesday, of which 10.5% were passed in.

The US exchange rate continued its sharp rise this week. The decision by the Reserve Bank to leave official interest rates unchanged led to a 0.81¢ fall in the closing rate on Tuesday. But, this was short-lived with rises totalling 2.46¢ over the next two days. Many experts now think parity with the US dollar is inevitable.

It was a very strong market, as reflected in the lowest pass-in rates of the season. This was particularly noticeable in the fleece wools in all centres. The EMI was again up in all currencies, including a 32¢ rise in US currency to 878¢. The increases in US over the last four sales have been 10¢, 19¢, 17¢ and 32¢. A very steep rise.

The increases occurred across all wool types and micron ranges, but were led by a 2% plus rise in the 19 to 22 micron wools.

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