WEEKLY MARKET REPORT Week Ending 18th December, 2020 AWEX Northern Micron Indices Comparison
ANNUS HORRIBILIS BUT … HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS! As the Queen stated at the end of 1992 the year has been “annus horribilis”. The collapse of her 3 children’s marriages and the near total destruction of the much beloved Windsor Castle prompted this statement from her. Fast forward 28 years and the same could be said for 2020 on so many fronts. From devastating bushfires and the continuing drought early in the year and floods that broke the drought and floods now to Covid-19 spreading like wildfire across the globe claiming 1.66 million lives and infecting 75.270 million people on the planet. This year has been like no other in many generations. The wool market continued to be erratic right till the final sale this week. The market gave back nearly all of last series’ gains as the AWEX EMI fell by 41 cents to 1157 the majority of the losses coming in the opening session. The losses in US$ terms was less than half in A$ terms, just 18 cents to 874, this due to the ascending A$ up above 76 cents this morning (a 3 year high against the greenback) a worry for exporters of raw materials. Finer fleece microns < 17.5 fell by 15 to 30 cents with 18s and broader dropping by 45/50 cents. Fine skirtings < 17.5 micron opened cheaper but found solid support in the final session to finish the sale up to 10 cents dearer while the coarser types lost 35 to 55 cents down. There was very little movement in the Carding sector as the MCI lost just 1 cent to 764 with the 3 centres’ MCIs well and truly aligned, 778 to 764. Crossbreds followed the merino combing market to fall 25 to 40 cents for all microns. The passed-in rate blew out to 18%. The big, anticipated offering of 49,000 bales didn’t eventuate with 44,800 being offered (9% withdrawn) combined with the high passed-in rate saw just 36,600 bales sold. One highlight was the highest price in Sydney on our sale day, (3rd highest for this week’s sale and 7th highest in Australia this week) was achieved by one of our Carmichael clients, Carla & Darren Hepburn from Delegate, a 2 bale line of 14.9 micron-0.3VM-72.5yld, 90mm-26nkt made 1898 to be processed by Raymond Industries in India. The EMI level of 1157 is 401 cents below last Christmas’ price of 1558, back by a whopping 25.7%. The year’s peak was in the opening sale of the year in January when it climbed to 1609 with the low point of just 858 cents in early September, a massive swing of a 47%. The volatility seen over many weeks of this year (in particular these last 6 months) has been unprecedented. The largest weekly drop was 155 cents in late March, 1442 to 1287, followed by a 128 cent fall in the resumption of sales in August. The biggest weekly rise was in October when the EMI climbed by 102 cents to 1219. The sale the previous week before saw a 95 cent leap, 197 cents for the fortnight!! Added to this was the disruption to the main software provider, Talman, in February resulting in the cancellation of Sale 35. All of this combined the challenges that the pandemic brought with it that came very close to having wool sales cancelled in Melbourne and all centres adhering to tight government health regulations with non-essential staff and no clients traveling to wool sales and reps unable to visit shed starts added to the pressure of selling wool in very uncertain times. The wool market was coming off the “Super-cycle” but was exacerbated by the complete collapse in demand once the pandemic took hold. China is showing signs of recovering but our other major wool users have been much slower. The release of vaccines and more to come will give Northern hemisphere governments the confidence to lift lock-downs and restrictions and a return to normal work and consumer spending habits will help get demand for wool back to a good level. Sales are in recess till week of 11th January. We hope everyone can enjoy a great Christmas and New Year break. Southern Aurora Fwd Prices
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Main Buyers (This Week)
|