By Charné Kemp
It is still too early in the year to determine what the demand for wool from Chinese buyers will be. New trends will only become clearer after 29 January when the Chinese New Year is over.
This is according to Deon Saayman, CEO of Cape Wools. “We will also get more clarity on the trends and demand once the Australian auctions resume on 14 January.”
The last Australian auction was on 17 and 18 December and there was a 1.21% increase (AUS$) compared to the previous auction held on 11 December.
He does believe the weakened rand could be in South Africa’s farmers and brokers’ favour.
In its latest market report Cape Wools says prices at the first wool auction of the year, the 15th of the season, did not show the full benefit of the weakened rand against the dollar, despite favourable trends.
This was due to the nature of the supply, in which only 22.3% of the Merino wool was certified as sustainably sourced. The supply consisted mainly of fine long wool.
The overall sales percentage was 95% and 5 695 bales were traded. The highest price of R205,87 p/kg clean wool was achieved for one bale of AH Merino wool of 18,1 microns from Broclin Farming from the Bedford district. BKB was the broker.
The sustainable non-certified wool indicator increased by 1.1% to R166.08 p/kg and the sustainable certified wool indicator increased by 1.7% to R169.65 p/kg. The main buyers at the auction were BKB Pinnacle Fibres (1 215), Tianyu SA (951), Standard Wool SA (914) and G Modiano SA (857).
According to OVK’s market report, he offered 1 742 bales at the latest auction, of which 99.4% were sold. His highest price of R148/kg (a clean wool price of R200) was achieved for one bale, lot AFY of 17.7 microns from the shearing of WDS Agri BK of the Barkly East district. The buyer was VBC Wools.
OVK believes the good note at this year’s first auction of the season can be attributed to the weakening of the rand-dollar exchange rate.
Of the 3 953 bales offered by BKB, 3 678 bales were sold. This is a sale percentage of 93%. The largest buyers at the auction were: BKB Pinnacle Fibres (1 215 bales), Tianyu SA (951 bales), Standard Wool (914 bales)