"The first half of the season closed on a positive note when Cape Wools' Merino indicator rose 3% at today's sale to close at R48.62/kg (clean)," said Cape Wools.
This means that the indicator has gained 14% after the seasonal low of R42.64/kg posted in the first week of November.
The group said that the market improved despite the slightly stronger currency, which at R10.16 had gained 1.1% against the US dollar compared with last Wednesday's exchange rate.
"It was 3.8% weaker against the euro and down 1.4% against the Australian dollar," it said.
Cape Wools said the main driving force for the price increase appeared to have been good demand from China, where importers are keen to fill import quotas before the year end.
"It was a fairly large sale with 10,583 bales on offer, of which 96% was sold," said Cape Wools.
Major buyers were Standard Wool SA (3,504 bales); Chargeurs Wool (1,632 bales); Lempriere AUS (1,564 bales); Segard Masurel (1,309 bales) and Modiano (1,259 bales).
Cape Wools noted that prices were up across the board, with long Merino types gaining between 2% to almost 5%.
Average price movements for AWEX types MF4 and MF5 of 70mm and 80mm were as follows: 19 microns rose 2.6% to R66.57/kg; 20 microns gained 2.6% to R54.42/kg; 21 microns were 2.4% dearer at R50.05/kg, and 22 microns were up 4.7 % to close at R49.55/kg.
There were no quotes for 23, 24 and 25 microns in these specific types.
Cape Wools said that sales would resume on January 14 when approximately 14,500 bales will be offered.
Published courtesy of
