WEEKLY MARKET REPORT 

Week Ending 5th July, 2019

 AWEX Northern Micron Indices Comparison

FINALLY MARKET LEVELS OUT!!

The new season opened with, well not quite a bang, but a definitely better tone than the past 9 sales when losses totaled 228 cents since early May, just 2 sales adding up to a 71 cent gain and 7 weeks of falls worth 228 cents. On many occasions in this time did we hear that the market had bottomed out but that was not the case until this week. The market was solid on the opening day and strengthened at the end of the series to have all MPGs increase their values by 10 to 25 cents, the EMI up by 8 cents to 1723 as discounts for the inferior types shrunk and lots < 2% VM with the “right specs” were up to 20 cents higher than the indicators.

Skirtings’ fortunes also turned the corner as good style, low VM types added 10/20 cents to their previous values with all other lots fully firm. Cardings also shook off the falling trend to add 20 cents to the MCI as all wools in this sector rose by 10 to 30 cents. Crossbreds were the only sector not to see a price advancement as they couldn’t recover the 10/15 cent loss from the opening day.

A good start to the new season as new-found confidence and a change of sentiment has the market finally finding a level after several false starts in May/June. Plenty of business had been written over the weekend where mills were happy that the market had fallen to a level that allowed far more business to be written than over the past month. The outcomes from the G20 meeting where the Tariff War might be closer to a resolution and the historic meeting in Nth Korea seemed to stem the flow of global economic doom and gloom for now and paint a somewhat brighter picture for the short term.

Another factor for buyers to consider is the volume of wool on offer globally, especially merino wool. This sale had only 31,000 bales rostered, a fall of 13,000 (30%) from the corresponding sale last season and the smallest opening sale for the season since AWEX started in 1995. Final figures for the 2018/19 season are in and total wool tested by weight for the year was down by 11.7% nationally and 19% back in NSW. The average for the EMI was 1909c/kg and $2139/bale. The total volume of wool sold was down by 16% on the previous season, this due to less volume and the pass-in rate doubling from 5 to 10% and total value of the clip sold was $3.174 billion down from $3.424 billion the year earlier. The final sale before the 3 week winter recess has 34,800 bales on offer, hopefully a firm finish.

Ag Concepts Fwd Prices as at 5 July, 2019        

Main Buyers (This Week)