Market drifts lower

AWEX reported lack-lustre bidding on lots with higher CVH and/or VM content, this resulted in falls in the range of 10 to 30 cents across the merino micron range in both Sydney & Melbourne.

Fremantle market reported all Merino fleece MPGs lost ground on Wednesday (down 5 to 25 cents) before regaining most of the lost ground on Thursday. The 18 and 20μm MPGs ended the week up 7 and 3 cents respectively.

Crossbreds performed strongly with price rises across the MPG range on both sale days. The 28 MPG ended up 7 cents to 352, while the 32 MPG lifted 32 cents to 302, the first time this MPG has broached 300 cents since November 2020.

In Melbourne locks with higher yields pushed Oddments upwards on Tuesday with crutchings gaining ground on Wednesday. The regional Carding indicators rose by 1 & 4 cents in Sydney & and Melbourne, however, Fremantle lost 25 cents for the week.

Of the 38,700 bales offered, 34,800 were eventually sold with a pass-in rate of 10% nationally.

This week on Mecardo, Andrew Woods notes that the decline in broader merino production from the early 1990s onwards and the focus of lamb producers on meat has meant the “in-between” micron categories have become hard to quote.

Price data is available for the merino and crossbred fleece categories in the fibre diameter categories where they overlap, but small volumes mean that prices can be quite volatile with crossbreds sometimes upgraded to near merino prices and merino sometimes dropped to the seconds and priced as crossbred.