Port Elizabeth – A larger offering of 11 767 bales was on auction on the 13th sale of the 2020/21 wool season, which took place this week, with 95,77% of the offering sold. Certified sustainable wools made up 19,5% of the merino wools on offer.

The market could not repeat the strong performance of last week and traded 7,4% softer, to close on R145,56 p/kg. The bulk of the offering consisted of fine micron wools, with good and medium length, with the fine micron sustainable merino fleece wools attracting good competition from buyers and outperforming the market. The broader microns categories once again suffered the biggest losses.

The stronger ZA currency resulted in downward pressure on the market, with the rand trading 3,8% stronger against the US, resulting in the market retracting by 3,8% in US$ terms. Compared to the last quoted AWEX EMI, the Australian market was down 2,78% (AU$).

The major buyers on today’s sale were: Modiano SA (3 406), Lempriere SA (2 536), Tianyu SA (2 129) and Standard Wool SA (1 734).

The average clean prices for the selection within the different micron categories for good top‑making (MF5), long fleeces were as follows: 18,0 microns decreased 6,3% to close at R181,31/kg; 18,5 microns moved 7,1% down to close at R169,16/kg; 19 microns lost 7,6% to close at R157,84/kg; 19,5 microns weakened by 5,9% to close at R151,96/kg; 20 microns was 6,2% weaker to close at R144,41/kg; 20,5 microns lost 6,2% to close at R140,02/kg; 21,0 microns lost 8,6% to close at R137,54/kg; 21,5 microns tumbled by 6,6% to close at R133,44kg; 22 microns fell 9,4% to close at R124,53/kg and 22,5 microns declined by 14,4% to close at R121,05/kg.

The next auction is scheduled for 18 November 2020.