WEEKLY MARKET REPORT
Week Ending 28th February, 2020
AWEX Northern Micron Indices Comparison
CYBER ATTACK CANCELS WOOL SALE
All indications were pointing to a dearer market this week but things ground to a halt as a cyber attack on the wool trades software provider, Talman, on Monday night rendered all participants idle. Both sides of the wool trade (brokers and buyers) both here and in New Zealand use Talman for their day-to-day work programs but from Tuesday morning no-one could do anything from lotting and preparing clips for testing, ordering wool out to be shipped to running the wool sales. After a series of meetings Sydney was to delay its wool sale on Wednesday till 2.00pm. When that became unfeasible all lots were to be sold on Thursday with the other 2 centres to sell Thursday/Friday. By Thursday morning with no solution in sight the decision was taken to delay this week’s sales till next week. South Africa held their wool sale this week with the market rising which augurs well for next week’s sale.
This now leaves us with the situation of holding 2 weeks of sales in the one series, a total of 69,000 bales, the largest national weekly offering for many years. Buyers are reporting that this big quantity will be absorbed as China is still very keen to secure wool and keep mills running and meet forward commitments despite the ongoing problems with the Coronavirus. A worrying sign is emerging from Italy as the lockdown of 3 towns near Biella and Milan could see a halt to wool processing there with some Superfine orders cancelled already.
Southern Aurora Fwd Prices
Main Buyers (This Week)
AUD/USD Currency Exchange