Market Intelligence
Weekly Wool Market Commentary
Moses & Son is committed to providing our valued customers the most current information and data to empower your decision-making process. Discover our latest Australian wool market weekly update below, along with archived reports for your perusal and analysis.
2024-S48
Week S48: 28/05/2025: The AWEX EMI closed on 1204c, up 1c at auction sales in Australia this week. The national weekly offering fell to 26,278 bales (Fremantle offered on Tuesday only) and by the markets close 90.7% cleared to the trade. Whilst the currency exchange stabilised this week the EMI in USD terms maintained last week’s levels at 776c. The low quantity coupled with the diversity in the selection and quality of the offering made it challenging for the trading exporters to execute new business for combing merino types. Competition came from the largest Australian exporter this week, dominating in the Merino Fleece and skirting combing wool sector and were in the mix of the carding and crossbred sectors. China’s largest top maker provided the stiffest of competition, but price-setting was mainly done by a few Chinese and Indian indents exporters fighting with suppliers with direct to mill orders chasing similar types.
Merino Fleece
Tuesday saw the merino fleece MPG’s 17.5µ and coarser rise between 8-24c in Sydney and Fremantle whilst the corresponding MPGs in Melbourne lost between 4c to 7c. Wednesday saw a firming of the Northern MPG’s whilst the Melbourne quotes gained between 1-9c. As mentioned earlier the quality of the selection has a substantial influence on the “basket of types” that make up the MPG’s. It may be the case of “the smaller the offering the larger the impact”. MPG North Percentile
Merino Skirtings
opened on Tuesday with good support on most types under 5% VM. Whilst the end of day quote was “fully firm” for the sector there were some noticeable price increases in the low VM types.
Merino Cardings
continued to ratchet downwards with the Sydney MC (701c) falling by 7c, Melbourne (648c)-4c and Fremantle (716c) -13c. The southern MC is ranked at the 2nd percentile (5year).
Crossbred Fleece
Crossbred Oddments
Crossbreds
Tuesdays market for best length, specifications, and style XB’s could only be described accurately as being hard to quote. The 28 MPG was quoted down 20c in Sydney and -3c in Melbourne, whilst the 30 MPG rose by 12c in Sydney and 3c in Melbourne. Wednesday’s result in both centres reduced to lesser movements either side of the previous day’s trading.
Next Week
Fremantle is not participating in sales and therefore the National offering falls black to 23,655 bales with Sydney and Melbourne. Low offerings are not unusual for this time of the year where shearing pauses for the cropping cycle to complete. The early intelligence is for “a firm market” for the best style lots with superior specifications. The rest may be 5-10c cheaper. ~ Marty Moses.
Graphs
Market Commentary
With the IWTO conference in the rear-view mirror I have been looking for a short summary of the sentiment of our major markets. Speaking to one of Australia’s prominent exporters who attended regarding his experiences at IWTO, the comment was that China, (currently purchase 86% of the Australian Woolclip), remain realistic and more accepting of the extremely challenging current market environment. “They are getting on with the business of business, whilst the Europeans processors are in a much darker place”. There was much focus and many discussions of the lower Australian Wool Production estimates, which was echoed times by the Australian contingent presentation. Growers’ sentiment to the prolonged price slump along with some challenging seasonal conditions have meant the knock-on effect that Wool Producers are experiencing is starting to be realised by the Brokers/selling agents, The Test House, Exporters, and the entire Industry Service sector. Whilst there is positive news in the prices being realised for Prime lamb, re-stocker and mutton prices, the trend remains for a continuing decline in the number of sheep in Australia. No doubt you have heard the saying- “many fortunes are made doing the opposite to what everyone else is doing”. Let’s hope there are enough producers and industry participants that can muster the resilience to embrace the current opportunities.