Large flock of sheep

When the cat is away the mice will play. Good news for the Chinese property market before China’s public holiday break has boosted the confidence and intent of wool buyers on the East Coast this week at auction.

The Chinese Central Bank (PBoC) announced stimulus activities to assist the maligned Chinese property and equities market. What this means for the Chinese economy is the alleviation of some household pressures that have contributed to lagging Chinese consumption and production. More importantly for the wool trade, it’s a favourable result for the Chinese economy which underpins global wool demand and returns for Australian wool growers.

Competitive bidding returned to the auction room this week in Sydney and Melbourne with all merino micron price categories improving by double digits.  In Sydney, the pass-in rate averaged 2.8%, and price gains ranged from 10-41¢ with 18MPG specifically improving 41¢ to 1483¢/kg.   Melbourne price rises ranged from 10-46¢, with 21MPG 29¢ higher to 1261¢/kg.  The result was the Eastern Market Indicator (EMI) rising 17¢ to 1104¢.

The Western wool market last week avoided declines and as such gains were minimal this week, the Western Market Indicator improved 2¢ to 1230¢/kg. Nationally 29, 748 bales were sold.

This week on Mecardo, Andrew Woods provided an update on the Argentine wool clip (read more here).  Compared to the Australian clip, Argentina has a relatively smaller level of production, but lagging global demand is contributing to the growth of their domestic wool stocks. Depending on the category of wool, Argentina’s stocks are between 100% and 250% of annual production. which puts further pressure on global supply in the current market.

Despite Australian weekly bales sold averaging 20% lower than last season the continued movement of wool through the system is a great sign (Figure 2). When the tide does turn, and demand improves the supply chain and wool growers are better off not having to liquidate excess stock which Argentina will have to do.  

Next week

There is still a long way to go before we can be bullish on Chinese wool demand, however, there is a pulse, and wool buyers will be following the situation closely.

Next week’s offering is forecast to be 10% higher week on week, (34,459 bales). Fremantle & Melbourne are selling on Tuesday and Wednesday next week. The NSW public holiday pushes the Sydney sales back to Wednesday and Thursday.

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Click on graph to expand

Click on graph to expand

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Data sources: Nutrien Ag Solutions, AWEX, AWI, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Westpac, Mecardo

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