Wool prices go down slightly

THE wool market was virtually unchanged amid a large offering yesterday.

The Cape Wools Merino indicator closed down a marginal 0.3% at R114.84/kg (clean). This is 12.6% higher than the opening sale and 2.4% higher than the corresponding sale of the previous season, Cape Wools SA spokeswoman Lizelle Delport said.

"It was a large offering of 15200 bales of which 98% was sold. Traders attributed the current market conditions to the significantly large offering and to the strengthening of the rand against the US dollar over the past few weeks.

"There was strong competition for good quality coarse wool of 21 microns and stronger due to limited supply thereof," Delport said

Major buyers were Standard Wools (4550), Lempriere (3073), Stucken & Co (2358), Modiano (1834) and Segard Masurel (1534).

The average clean prices for the different categories of good top-making (MF5), long fleeces were: 18 microns (µm) down 3.9% to R123.63/kg; 18.5µm rose 2% to R122.44/kg; 19µm remained unchanged at R119.25/kg; 19.5µm was up 1.2% to close at R116.88/kg; 21µm rose 2.2% to R116.82/kg; 21.5µm gained 3.8% to close at R116.25/kg, and 22µm shed 2.6% to close at R114.27/kg.

The next sale is scheduled for Wednesday when about 8000 bales will go under the hammer. - Business Reporter