After two successive weeks of rises, and three without an overall fall, the Australian wool market has softened this week.
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Lower supply at auction couldn't stem the weaker buyer sentiment as lesser quality wools felt the brunt of the cheaper trend the most.
The national offering fell below 40,000 bales (there was a total of 39,229 bales available to the trade) and the Australian Wool Exchange reported this was the smallest sale since the beginning of March.
The majority of the losses were felt on Tuesday in the eastern states.
The individual micron price guides for Merino fleece dropped by between nine and 66 cents a kilogram, according the AWEX data.
These losses combined with overall weakness in the crossbreds, skirtings and cardings resulted in an 18c/kg fall in the AWEX Eastern Market Indicator (EMI).
By yesterday the market had settled.
At the Sydney and Melbourne sales the prices on offer were generally within 10c/kg of those achieved during the previous day.
AWEX reported a stronger crossbred market helped to minimise the downward movement of the EMI, which dropped by 2c/kg for the day.
In Sydney, all micron price guides between 18.5- and 21-micron rose in value yesterday.
The Northern Market Indicator finish the week on 1186c/kg which was 5c/kg below the same time last week.
The Melbourne auction was dearer right across the board yesterday and the Southern Market Indicator even managed to claw back 1c/kg to finish the week on 1130c/kg.
The EMI finished the week 20c/kg lower, closing at 1152c/kg.
A weakened Australian dollar meant that the fall was larger in US dollar terms.
The EMI fell by US19c/kg, finishing at US745c/kg.
A positive sign for the following series, the market finished strongly in Western Australia, with all Merino fleece micron price guides recording positive movements (between 4c/kg and 14c/kg) to close out the series.
Although a similar amount has been offered this season (there has been 3940 less bales offered), AWEX reported that compared to the previous season the total dollar amount sold is well down.
There has been a total of $1,902 million worth of wool sold this season, this is $167 million lower than the previous season, according to AWEX.
Next week a similar size sale is expected and there are 41,475 bales on offer in Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle.
