The 27th sale of the 2019-20 South African wool season was held this week with 7,709 bales on offer. Of these, 77.7% were sold. The wool market closed 3.1% (466 points) down at R145.03 a kg clean. This week, the rand was 1.8% stronger against the US dollar and 0.8% stronger against the euro, compared with the average rate at the previous sale. Thus, the market weakened 1.3% in US dollar terms.
The market continued the sale under persistent difficult trading conditions. All buying houses participated actively in the auction, with the market retracting by 3.1% from the previous sale and achieving a 77% sales clearance. The offering consisted of more medium-length wools, with fine and long merino fleeces once again performing better than the market average, and strong and short wools experiencing the most downward pressure.
The major buyers were: Standard Wool SA (1,549), Lempriere SA (1,402), Modiano SA (1,029), and Stucken & Co (819).
The average clean prices for the selection within the different micron categories for good top-making (MF5), long fleeces were as follows: 18 microns decreased 5.5% to close at R168.89 a kg; 18.5 microns moved 4.1% down to close at R162.16 a kg; 19 microns lost 4.4% to close at R156.22 a kg; 19.5 microns weakened by 1.4% to close at R155.71 a kg; 20 microns were 3.4% weaker to close at R147.08 a kg; 20.5 microns lost 1.4% to close at R146.19 a kg; 21 microns lost 5.8% to close at R141.85 a kg; 21.5 microns tumbled 3.8% to close at R149.62 a kg; 22 microns fell 6.5% to close at R133.32 a kg; and 22.5 microns declined 2.9% to close at R141.52 a kg.
