WEEKLY MARKET REPORT

Week Ending 14^th September, 2018

AWEX Northern Micron Indices Comparison

MILLION DOLLAR RAM SALE!

Plenty happening in the world of wool this week as the market stagnated, a record breaking ram sale and the annual Nanjing wool conference. The market followed last week’s pattern - a dearer opening session ending with a softer tone on the final day. The AWEX EMI advanced by just 6 cents to 2094 (37% higher than a year ago) helped along by the sub 19 micron indicators gaining 10 to 45 cents as the broader edge, 20 to 24 slipped by 10/20. The FRX remained stable around the 72 cent mark after falling to below 71 cents early in the week, its lowest point for 2 years. This enabled the EMI in $US to also add 6 cents to its value, up to 1503 as just 68 bales of FLC were passed-in in Sydney.

All types of skirtings made subtle gains, 10 to 20 cents depending on the level of VM and style. There was very little change in the carding market, the only movement being fine micron LKS back by 10 to cents. Crossbreds also had a sedate sale to have most types appreciate by 5/10 cents.

On property ram sales started with a bang. The first cab off the rank was long time wool client Kerin Poll from Yeoval with a massive 400 ram catalogue. 80+ registered bidders competed on every ram to achieve a top price of $9,000 to average $3026 with a 100% clearance. The sale grossed $1.21m to set a new national record for a single on-property ram sale and certainly set an incredible tone for the remainder of the ram selling season. Some of their new buyers from Victoria, Tasmania and Southern NSW were composite breeders aiming to join theses new rams to their ewes to put a bit more value into their wool clips. Well done to all at Kerin Poll, a great result. Another Macwool client, the famous Haddon Rig stud at Warren, held their sale on Thursday offering 150 horned and 60 poll rams with the top price going to a poll ram at $14,000. In an ever-increasing trend where studs are breeding both types the average for the polls was higher then their horned counterparts, $2887 to $2148 with a 91% clearance  and overall average of $2357. Again, great results for both studs considering the dire season.

It was a situation of “wait and see” this sale as the Nanjing Wool Conference was held and the outcomes will become more apparent in the next few sales. Hard to gauge from bleary-eyed delegates how the mood in China is as most are still in-bound or recovering from a solid 3 days of business and pleasure!!. What everyone is acutely aware of is the shortfall of wool when compared to last season, a dramatic 48,000 bales (13%) or 1 selling week of wool!!  Also on the radar at the conference is the recently introduced environmental protection legislation in China and the cost for mills to implement these new laws, the biggest drama being the effects on scouring effluent and waste water and sludge disposal as water treatment devices are adding significant costs to the scouring process. The USA and China trade war was also discussed at length, more on this next week. 35,000 bales on offer next week, no real change expected.

                        Ag Concepts Fwd Prices as at 14 September, 2018

Main Buyers (this week)

AUD/USD Currency Exchange

0.7178 é 0.0010 compared with 7/09/2018