Weekly Market Wrap

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With Adrian Field, Melbourne
Trading Manager

October 21, 2005

Good stability continues

THE eastern market indicator remained solid again this week to close at 672 cents per kilogram – another rise of 1c/kg.

From a total offering of 60,212 bales, 8.2 per cent was passed in.

Southern Region

Merino fleece types generally remained firm. Prices for some microns were up slightly, while others were down slightly.

Merino skirtings and cardings weakened a little. Crossbred wool prices increased slightly.

An advertisement appeared this week for the launch of an anaesthetic and antiseptic pain reliever for lambs at mulesing. This is great news and long overdue. Let’s hope it is successful.

There was also another shearing invention. A platform shearing outfit developed by PeakHill Industries will be demonstrated at this year’s Australian Wool Innovation annual meeting on November 9. It appears to be a similar concept to the Shear Express unit, in that it allows the shearer to stand up the entire time while the sheep is fastened on a conveyor system, hence eliminating all the manual handling and improving the shearer’s posture.

Next week’s offerings will be held in Melbourne, Sydney and Fremantle, with a total of 62,000 bales on offer. New Zealand will be offering about 4400 bales in Melbourne.

As long as the Australian dollar is steady, we should see further stability in prices.

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