Weekly Market Wrap

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With Brian Vagg, Melbourne

January 18, 2008

Market rising despite large offering

THE momentum from last week continued this week with the second largest offering of the season of nearly 70,000 bales.

The eastern market indicator (EMI) has climbed to a new high of 1036 cents per kilogram at the close of sales on Thursday. This was an 8c/kg rise on the high of last week.

On Tuesday the EMI remained unchanged, with only Melbourne selling and the Australian dollar trading at its highest point for the week.

On Wednesday the EMI jumped 10c/kg to close at 1038c/kg, and on Thursday it eased by 2c/kg to finish at 1036c/kg clean.

All Merino fleece types received good support on all selling days. The 20-micron and finer selection closed the week 15-20c/kg firmer and the broader types finished 10c/kg dearer compared with last week.

With the bigger offering, there was a large selection of high mid-break types, especially on Thursday. As the better types are becoming harder to source, good premiums are being paid for the better style wools with high newtons per kilotex, low mid-break and good length.

A very large offering of crossbred fleece, which enabled buyers to pick and choose, resulted in most types falling slightly.

The best skirtings with good length and low vegetable matter received very strong competition, while most other skirtings also closed the week on a slightly firmer note.

Cardings were a little mixed on all selling days, however they closed around 10c/kg dearer. For two consecutive weeks, stained lines recorded excellent increases.

A smaller offering of 55,550 will be available next week, a decrease of 14,397 on this week.

With the smaller offerings over the next few weeks, the market momentum is expected to be maintained. The national passed-in rate this week was 7.2 per cent.

Southern region

The market opened on Tuesday, with the Australian dollar at its highest level of the week. Despite this and the large selection on offer, all microns recorded rises.

The finer 16-17 micron fleece types closed the week nearly 40c/kg clean firmer. The 17.5-20 micron fleece all closed 10c/kg dearer and the 20-micron and broader wools recorded 5-10c/kg gains.

A large selection of crossbred fleece resulted in mixed results, with all microns generally closing 5-10c/kg easier.

Once again, the better skirtings had good support and closed in sellers' favour. Cardings also received strong support on all days and finished the week 5c/kg firmer.

Merino wool takes spotlight on Florence catwalk

The results of Australian Wool Innovation's Protege Project - where up-and-coming designers and a group of famous mentors produced garments made from Merino wool - were unveiled on a glittering Florence catwalk last week.

The project is part of AWI's Merino 200 celebrations which mark the 200th anniversary of the export of the first bale of Australian wool for commercial sale in 1807.

The Protege collections, all made using Australian Merino wool, are the work of five promising young international fashion designers who were hand-picked and mentored by fashion luminaries who included Donatella Versace and Karl Lagerfeld.

AWI spent $200,000 on producing the five collections unveiled in Florence, plus millions more on the event itself in the hope that more young designers will start working with wool. (Source: Rural Press)

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