News

The Australian Wool Production Forecasting Committee (AWPFC) met on Wednesday to review its forecast for shorn wool production in Australia for 2019/20. The new forecasts were released today and show that the Committee now predicts that shorn wool production will be 285 mkg greasy, down 5% on the estimate for 2018/19 (which is 300 mkg greasy). The main driver for the decline in shorn wool production is a lower number of sheep shorn as a result of the increased turn-off of adult sheep in…

There was a strong field of applicants for the NCWSBA Wool Broker Award this year. The independent Selection Panel of Ed Storey (President, Woolproducers Australia), Ian Ashman (General Manager, Raw Wool, AWTA) and Terry Sim (Senior Journalist for Sheep Central) met on Friday, 12th July and, after reviewing the five applications, agreed on the Finalists for the 2019 NCWSBA Wool Broker Award. The three Finalists are: Samantha Wan (Elders, Victoria)Russell Macgugan (AWN, Victoria) andMatthew…

Wool prices have dropped sharply in the past few months, reflecting sharply lower demand and comes despite the lower volumes of wool available from Australia. The fall in demand is illustrated by the decline in the volume of wool exported by the five major wool exporting countries (Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, South Africa and Uruguay). For the first eight months of 2019, total wool exports from these five countries were 11% lower than for the same period in 2018. At just 352 mkg greasy,…

According to data from AWTA, the weight of wool tested across Australia fell sharply compared with September 2018, continuing the downward trend seen so far this season. Across Australia, there was a 13.7% drop in the weight of wool tested for the month. At just 24.28 mkg it is the lowest total for September in many, many years. As a result, there was a 14% drop in the weight of wool tested in the first quarter of the 2019/20 season. This is a larger decline than the current forecast from the…

The Nanjing Wool Market Conference was held on 21st and 22nd September in Qufu, China. The mood of many of the attendees and of the presenters was quite pessimistic. Their concerns stem from the US-China trade war and its effect, not just directly for the wool textile industry in China, but also on economic growth and consumer confidence in China, as well as the impact on other economies. Demand through the wool textile industry has slowed, not just in China but around the world, and stocks…

When the price distributions were last reviewed on 8th February, the EMI was at 1944 Ac/kg and 1380 USc/kg, which was at the 98th percentile in A$ and the 96th percentile in US$. As at 20th September, the EMI had fallen to 1542 Ac/kg (the 93rd percentile) and 1047 USc/kg (the 85th percentile). While wool prices from 30 micron down have all fallen since February, the largest declines have been for Merino wool which are 20% to 25% lower in A$ terms and 23% to 29% lower in US$ terms. [The A$ is…

The US imposed an additional 15% import duty on wool clothing imported from China, effective from 1st September, adding significantly to the cost of wool clothing imported into the US from China in the lead-in to the Autumn/Winter season. The latest data on the US imports of wool clothing both in total and from China suggests that US importers and retailers anticipated the additional import duties by importing more wool clothing in June and July. US imports of apparel of all fibres lifted by 9%…

Australian wool prices fell sharply in August, with the Eastern Market Indicator down by 322 Acents (or 22%) from the start to the end of the month. It was a similar percentage drop in US$, Euro and Renminbi. This is one of the largest monthly % declines since 1991, with a similar % decline seen (for example) in May 2003 after the SARS outbreak in China. The decline in Merino wool prices over the past month comes amid the backdrop of the US Government introducing a 15% additional duty on…

Wool prices in the Australian wool market dropped alarmingly in the week ending 16th August. Clearly the negative sentiment in the wool market triggered by the Trump Administration’s announcement of 10% import duties on the remaining imports from China two weeks ago and the subsequent devaluation of the Chinese Renminbi continued. The decline in the EMI since the peak exactly one year ago (including the sharp falls in the past fortnight) follows the pattern we have seen for all five Supercycles…

Hopes for a solid resumption for the Australian wool market after the three-week recess were dashed by the unexpected ramping up of the US-China trade war. Wool prices fell sharply almost across the board, despite a relatively low wool offering for sale and with 28.6% passed-in (the highest rate in over a decade according to AWEX). The news dominating the wool market (as well as dominating the world equity and commodity markets in general) was the increased trade tensions between the US and…

It is time for an update on the trends in prices for the major competing fibres with wool. While Australian wool prices have pulled back from the heights over the past 6-9 months, prices for the other major competing fibres have also seen declines, in general continuing the slide seen since the first half of 2018. For synthetic fibres, prices for all three fibres have fallen since mid-2018, although acrylic fibre prices have turned down again after a rebound earlier this year. The decline in…

At its meeting on 22nd August, the NCWSBA Board decided unanimously to support the call for the mandatory use of anaesthetic/analgesia when surgical mulesing is conducted. As is now well known, WoolProducers Australia and some state farming organisations have adopted a policy of seeking the mandatory use of pain-relief for surgical mulesing. This is being supported by Sheep Producers Australia. The Board of NCWSBA considered the results of a survey of its members which showed that the…

There is now a Wool Broker and Livestock Agents Online Training Course available to help prepare for if and when there is an outbreak of an Emergency Animal Disease in Australia, such as Foot and Mouth Disease. The course has been developed under the direction of WoolProducers Australia and SheepProducers Australia with funding from Animal Health Australia. The course is designed to inform and train wool and livestock selling agents about how to recognise and respond to a suspected Emergency…