News

The Australian Wool Production Forecasting Committee met on Wednesday 14th November to review its forecast for the 2018/19 season. As I said in the Weekly Newsletter of 12th October, the Committee decided to bring forward its meeting from December to November, partly in response to concern around the world about the wool supply available from Australia this season. The new forecast from the Committee is that shorn wool production will be 305 mkg in 2018/19, down by 10.8% on 341 mkg in 2017/18.…

The three Finalists for the 2018 NCWSBA Wool Broker Award gave presentations at the NCWSBA Annual General Meeting and Forum on 23rd August. The three Finalists, Samantha Wan (Elders), Cassandra Baile (AWN) and Candice Cordy (Landmark) all gave fantastic presentations, highlighting the diverse roles of wool brokers and their great contributions. There were around 50 people in the audience attending the AGM and all were hugely impressed. Annabelle Cleeland (Editor, Stock and Land), Ed Storey…

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 latest data on mulesing status from AWEX is for the first six months of 2018/19. It shows that while a fall in the number of bales declared as Non-Mulesed and Pain Relief in December (down 4% and 10% respectively) and in the July to December period (down 8% and 12% respectively), the decline was much lower than the fall in the total number of bales offered at auction (down 18% in December and 20% for July-December). As a result, the share of Non-Mulesed wool increased to 12.3% for the six…

While Australian Merino wool prices pulled back in October and November, prices remain at historically high levels. It is interesting to update what has happened to prices in other countries over the past 12 months. There has been a strong ramp up in Merino wool prices since mid-2016 as the Merino price Supercycle took hold. The movements in prices for 28 micron wool have been more muted, but there has been a rising trend since mid-2016. In contrast, prices for broad wool from NZ and the UK (32…

The latest statistics on wool tests for November showed a surprisingly large 21% drop in the weight of wool tested in November. At just 32.2 mkg, the weight tested was the lowest tested in the month of November for many, many years. My databases only go back to 2011/12 and the total tested is well below the next lowest, which was 34.3 mkg in 2015/16. The Australian Wool Production Forecasting Committee when it met in 3 weeks ago was not expecting such a collapse in wool tests in November for…

Wool prices have fallen back from the record levels seen in August. At the same time, prices for other fibres have also pulled back, as have prices for other industrial commodities such as metals and oil. The sharpest declines have been seen for oil, wool and cotton. While each market has its own characteristics and drivers, there are wider forces causing a general decline in commodity prices. This includes the slow-down in economic growth in China, the ongoing trade tensions between the US and…

‘Black Friday’ sales are becoming a global phenomenon with Australian retailers embracing it this year (both online and bricks & mortar retailers). ‘Black Friday’ is actually an US tradition since at least the early 1960s, being the day after Thanksgiving when retailers throw open their doors and offer large bargains to entice shoppers and kick off the Christmas and holiday retail season. The Oxford English Dictionary says that one reason it is called ‘Black Friday’ is because it is the first…

The 9th February edition of the Weekly Newsletter covered the Merino price Supercycles in the past 30 years. These Supercycles differ from the regular price cycles that the wool market experiences - from trough to peak of about 7-9 months followed by a slide to a new trough. These regular cycles are driven by stocking and destocking decisions within the wool textile industry. Every so often we see a Supercycle, one which goes for much longer and involves a much greater increase in prices. The…

Since the start of the 2018/19 season to 2nd November, the EMI fell by 164 cents. There have been falls across all microns with the exception of the 32 Micron Price Guide, which has lifted by 6% (from a very low base). The largest fall has been recorded for the Merino Carding Indictor, which is 410 cents or 27% lower. Of the main fleece types, the biggest falls have been for wool of 16.5 micron and finer, which is down by 415 cents (or 14%) since the start of the season. The broad Merino wools…

The latest data on Chinese economic growth shows that the growth rate for the massive Chinese economy fell to 6.5% for the third quarter of 2018, down by an annualised growth rate of 6.7% in the second quarter. This is the slowest annualised growth rate that China has recorded since the Global Financial Crisis a decade ago. The growth rate was dragged down by weaker factory activity and lower infrastructure investment. Note that the Chinese economy is still growing at a relatively strong pace…

We are heading into the Autumn/Winter season in the Northern Hemisphere. This period, between October and January, is the most important for the volume of wool clothing sold annually in the major retail markets of China, the US, Japan, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Korea. A key indicator of how retail sales may go is consumer confidence in these countries. If consumers are confident, they are far more likely to spend, and spend on higher priced products, including wool…

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…

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…