News

From 2nd July the NCWSBA office will be located at the AWH Wool Selling Centre in Tottenham, here in Melbourne. The new address is Gate 4, 29 Frederick Rd, Tottenham Vic 3012. The new email address will be info@ncwsba.org. Chris Wilcox's email address is chris.wilcox@ncwsba.org. The NCWSBA phone number will be +61 (0)419 344 259.

The Australian Wool Production Forecasting Committee (AWPFC) met on Wednesday, 18th April and decided on its updated forecast of Australian shorn wool production for 2017/18 and its first forecast for 2018/19. These forecasts were released on 20th April. The updated AWPFC forecast of shorn wool production for 2017/18 of 338 mkg greasy (a slight 0.6% fall compared with 340 mkg produced in 2016/17) is lower than the Committee’s December forecast of 345 mkg. Seasonal conditions have been much…

There are reservations among Australian wool brokers about Australian Wool Innovation’s development of WoolQ, according to the National Council of Wool Selling Brokers of Australia. These reservations raise questions about why AWI has agreed to fund the development of WoolQ. John Colley, President of NCWSBA, said that the Board of NCWSBA discussed WoolQ and expressed concerns about why AWI had decided to proceed with its development.“The Australian wool market is thriving, as can be seen by the…

Data from AWEX on the mulesing status of first-hand wool offered for the full 2017/18 season shows that there was a significant lift of around 20% in the number of bales declared as either Non-Mulesed (NM) or Pain Relief (PR). This increase took the share of NM wool to 11.5%, well above the 9.9% share recorded in 2016/17. The share of PR wool lifted to 31.6%. There was a 9% drop in wool declared as Ceased Mulesed (CM). This may be due to a change in definition for properties to be eligible to…

ABARES (the Australian Government’s agricultural commodity forecaster) recently released its latest forecasts for 2018/19. Its March forecasts were bullish for wool price, and now the June forecasts have been lifted even further. ABARES predicts that the EMI will average 1990 c/kg in 2018/19, up 15.5% from an average of 1723 c/kg in 2017/18. In March 2018, ABARES predicted that the EMI would average 1700 c/kg in 2018/19. So, the forecast annual average has been lifted by 290 c/kg. This is an…

There has been an 11% increase in exports by the five major wool producing and exporting countries for the 2017/18 season to April. New Zealand and Uruguay have seen a very strong increase in exports this season after the dismal declines in 2016/17. Exports from Australia have increased more modestly, exports from Argentina are on par with 2016/17 levels (but have increased strongly in the past few months) why exports from South Africa are down a little. This increase in exports from the five…

Data from the National Wool Declaration to May released by AWEX shows a continued increase in the volume of wool being offered at auction that is either declared as Pain Relief (PR) or as Non-Mulesed (NM). However, there has been a drop in the amount of wool declared as Ceased Mulesed (CM). For the 2017/18 season to May, there has been a 20% increase in the number of bales declared as NM and an 18% increase in the number of bales declared as PR. There has been a small 1% increase in the number…

The sharp rise in the EMI in the past 12 months and particularly in the past month has been terrific news for Australian woolgrowers who grow Merino wool and all growers around the world who have Merino sheep. The move above the $20/kg mark is indeed momentous. However, the record nominal level is illusory as it does not allow for inflation: $1 now is worth less than it was 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 30 years ago. It is worth looking again at prices in real terms (i.e. adjusted for inflation).…

The latest data on China’s trade in wool and wool products from the China Wool Textile Association shows that imports of raw and semi-processed wool by China increased sharply in March after declining in February. While imports from all sources increased by 39% in March compared with March 2017, the most significant increases were seen for imports from New Zealand (+88%), Uruguay (+86%) and ‘other’ countries (+80%). Imports from Australia lifted by 16%. For the 2017/18 season to March, China’s…

The results from the annual survey of wool textile conditions from the IWTO show that business conditions are positive right through the wool textile industry, including for interior textiles. Each sector is seeing above normal activity levels and better than last year. Each sector also reports that activity levels should remain above normal levels to the end of the year. Furthermore, the Survey results suggest that stock levels at each stage are at normal levels. In the case of the early stage…

The latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Australia’s wool exports shows that Australian wool exports fell in March by 3% in volume terms but increased by 16% in value terms compared with March 2017. The decline in volume was driven by a 6% drop in exports to China. There was also a fall in exports to South Korea and Taiwan. The volume of exports to other countries increased in March. While the volume change was variable, the value of exports to all of the major destinations…

The wool test statistics from AWTA show that after falling in February and March, wool test volumes increased by 12% in April compared with April 2017. Part of this increase was due to an extra working day in April given that Easter fell at the end of March/early April this year. It brings the year-to-date wool test volumes to a 0.9% increase for the 2017/18 season to April. There has been a significant increase in the volume of wool tested at either end of the micron range. Volumes tested of…

The Winner of the 2016 NCWSBA Wool Broker Award was announced at the Wool Week dinner in Melbourne on 25th August. The Winner of the 2016 Award is Lachlan Sutton of Elders. In making their decision, the Selection Panel noted they found the calibre of all three presentations to be excellent. They also found it difficult to separate the finalists and that all would be very worthy winners. The Panel noted that some of the most pleasing aspects from the finalists were: their obvious passion and…

The winner of the 2015 National Council of Wool Selling Brokers of Australia’s Wool Broker Award to recognise excellence in wool broking in Australia has been announced. Matthew Thomas of Landmark was selected by the independent Selection Panel as the winner. Andrew Howells of Elders and Todd Clark of Schute-Bell were the other two Finalists. The independent Selection Panel made their decision after the three Finalists gave presentations to at the NCWSBA Annual General Meeting held on Thursday,…