Wool market drops over 3% at 24th sale of season

The 24th sale of the season saw

7 541 bales on offer, after 540 bales were withdrawn prior to the sale. Responsible Wool Standard (RWS)-certified wool comprised 49,1% of the Merino wool on offer, according to Cape Wools SA. The bulk of the offering consisted of fine-micron, longer-length wools.

The market once again followed the downward trend in Australia, where prices fell 2,3%.

The market experienced additional downward pressure from the stronger rand against the US dollar. The nonMerino and poorer-style wools further impacted the market negatively, according to Cape Wools SA. The non-RWS indicator declined 3,1% to close at R166,50/kg, with the certified indicator shedding 3,8% to close at R177,98/kg. A good overall sales clearance of 92,7% was achieved.

Major buyers were Standard Wool SA (1 660 bales), G Modiano SA (1 634), Tianyu SA (1 069) and

BKB Pinnacle Fibres (1 050).

The OVK auction offered 2 151 bales, of which 93,72% were sold.

The top price of R210/kg was achieved by a six-bale AFFY lot of 15,6 microns from the clip of The Kerneels Greyling Trust, Wakkerstroom district. The buyer was Standard Wool. Australian Wool Innovation reported that, as prices fell, grower seller resistance became apparent, and by the end of the week almost 20% of the offering had been passed in, and another 8% withdrawn before selling.

Demand for wool had been further curtailed for the time being by the apprehension across all global markets caused by failures and issues facing some within the banking sector.

The subsequent stock and share losses, wildly erratic foreign exchange rates and a number of economies raising interest rates once more to curb inflation all combined to set a very risky environment to trade.