Australian wool market up

In the last sale before the mid-year break and a week when the United States exchange rate increased by 1.9 percent, the Australian wool market finished 0.8 percent lower, on average, at sales in Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle this week.
The AWEX EMI fell by 2c (-0.2 percent), ending the week at 929c/kg clean. This reflected a decrease of 7c ( 0.7 percent) in the North and an increase of 1c (+0.1 percent) in the South, with their corresponding Regional Indicators finishing the week at 956c and 906c clean respectively. The Western Indicator fell by 18c (1.9 percent), finishing the week at 926c.
In a three day sale in Melbourne and Sydney, the AWEX EMI rose by 1c on Tuesday, fell by 1c on Wednesday and by 2c on Thursday. The Western Indicator fell by 13c on Wednesday and by 5c on Thursday. Although prices have come back from their peak of five weeks ago when the EMI was 1016c, they remain good.
When compared with the start of the upward movement of the market in October, the EMI and the Northern, and Southern and Western Indicators are now up by 188c (+25.4 percent), 190c (+24.8 percent), 186c (+25.8 percent) and 209c (+29.1 percent), respectively. 19 to 23 micron average AWEX Micron Price Guides (MPGs) are up by 204c to 234c clean over the period and by 200c for 24 micron wools. At the fine end, the changes are 108c for 16.5 micron wool, 125c for 17.0, 153c for 17.5, 141c for 18.0 and 182c for 18.5 micron wool. 71,979 bales were on offer, compared with 53,871 last week, of which 12.5 percent were passed in, comprised of 10.0 percent in Sydney, 9.4 percent in Melbourne and 20.9 percent in Fremantle.
Pass-in rates for Merino fleece and skirtings were 13.7 percent and 10.3 percent respectively. 4,241 bales (5.6 percent) were withdrawn prior to sale and re-offered wools made up 8.6 percent of this week's offering.
When looked at in other currencies, the AWEX EMI increased by 13c (+1.7 percent) in US terms and by 4c (+0.7 percent) in Euro terms when compared with the previous sale.
The changes in the EMI in US and Euro currencies since mid October are now 243 USc (+43.9 percent) and 144 Euro cents (+32.6 percent). The EMI in US terms (797c) is 102c above the 2002/03 peak of 695c.
The market opened up this week in a steady fashion after the falls of the last two weeks, with the EMI moving up by 1c, and holding on Wednesday before easing slightly yesterday. Merino fine wools were in plentiful supply and eased during the week with their average MPGs coming back by 10 to 20c, except for the 16.5 MPG which lifted by 21c.
Medium wools finished in line with last week, or slightly up. Merino skirtings continued to be in keen demand while oddments were down with the average Merino Cardings MPG easing by 22c. Fine crossbreds lost ground during the week, whereas the broader ones were mostly up a few cents. The main buyers were for China. Sales will be in recess next week. The first estimate for Sale 5 is 72,000 bales, 2.9 percent higher than last year.