NZ wool prices mixed at weekly auction

Friday 11th March 2016

New Zealand wool prices were mixed at auction this week, ahead of the last double selling event for the season.

The price for clean 35-micron wool, a benchmark for crossbred wool used for carpets and accounting for the majority of New Zealand's production, traded at $5.85 per kilogram at yesterday's South Island auction, unchanged from last week, according to AgriHQ. Lambs wool dropped for a seventh straight week, to $6.35/kg, from $6.45/kg reflecting a higher amount of coarse wool from older lambs.

Some 88 percent of the 7,800 bales on offer were sold at this week's auction, with strong competition among Australian and Chinese buyers. Coarse crossbred type wool fared best, generally trading at a 1 to 1.5 percent premium on last week's levels, while fine crossbred wool was steady to 1 percent more expensive, according to AgriHQ analyst Reece Brick.

Next week's sale on March 17 will include 11,400 bales from the North Island and 6,800 bales from the South Island. This is the last double selling centre sale for the season, following the wind down of the main shearing season from December to early February.

Last week a total of 18,486 bales were offered at auctions in the North and South Islands in the second biggest auction of the season, with a clearing rate of 87.5 percent.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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