Corporation shores up new-season wool prices

Press, 24 August 1977, Page 18

Corporation shores up new-season wool prices

’ Growers can be thankful I for the presence of the Wool Marketing Corporation at I the first sale of the new i wool-selling season in' I Canterbury yesterday. I The sale was that of. ! South Canterbury brokers’ iwools, but was held in the 1 Wool Exchange at Addington. The coporation is almost ! certain to end up being the largest buyer at the sale. It j had 37.7 per cent of the •'greasy wool passed to its i intervention bids, and it is ■unlikely that many growers | will turn down the attractive /prices that the corporation was offering. They have 24 hours after the sale in which ' to make up their minds. Had it not been for the corporation, the prices received by these growers could well have been markedly lower. More than half of the selection of almost 12,000 bales of greasy wool was made up of fleece wool, and it was these attractive, wellgrown wools that were the , weak point of the market. The indication was that . trade ideas of the value of these wools was often quite a long way away from those ' of the corporation, and the result was that it was ' mainly these that fell to the I corporation’s bids, although it had a wide range of types! (passed to it. J Apart from an odd line (taken up by local mills, the (fine fleece wools in the (offering were largely negilected, and interest in the crossbred fleece wools was ' restricted largely to the ( lower edge of what was ■ really a very good selection. ’ “Passed to the corporation” was the constant call of . auctioneers throughout the day. .! For the halfbred and Cor.jriedale fleece and also the icrossbred fleece values were /quoted unchanged on rates .at the Dunedin and In- ■ | vercargill sales last week, J but it was purely the activity of the corporation that ■|Was keeping the market up, ■ However, the comment ~was heard in the sale room t that people certainly still (wanted wool and if at the t moment the trade was reluci tant to come up to corporat--1 ion levels it could do so yet. j' The coarser crutchings and i belly wools seemed to fare 1 relatively better than other • classes in that they did not -seem to need the support of the corporation to the extent - that other wools did.

1 In the first catalogue of the j I day the corporation put in I Jits' bid on 80.5 per cent of! the selection and had 42 per i' cent passed to it. Over the i next two catalogues its activfjity declined a little, the cor-: ’ poration getting only 30.1 per i cent passed to it in the sec-i ■ lond catalogue, but at the end' I of the sale it was as busy : as ever bidding on 81.2 per • cent of the wool in the final catalogue and having almost) > 43 per cent passed to it. ; Over the day it intervened' ;iin the offering of 9145 bales ; or 77.9 per cent of the wool • with its bid, and had 4431 i bales, or 37.7 per cent. of( I the greasy wool passed to it.! i Although the market for fine and coarser fleece was, ; quoted as being unchanged,) • the tone was weaker, indi- ; cated by the fact that a lesser i proportion of wool was being taken up by the trade and, . more by the corporation than 1 in the Dunedin sale last week,! ; the Dunedin offering being) i fairly similar in composition' - to the Timaru one. At Dun- » edin the corporation had only 25.8 per cent of the wool t passed to it. f Halfbred skirtings, odd- > ments, and crutchings were • also barely up to southern • rates, but crossbred crutch- 1 ; ings were steady and the< ■ coarser skirtings and oddi ments were the bright point) ;|of the sale, being slightly: i better than in the south. i >i But with the corporation' > | standing firmly behind the market in spite of the .jness of the trade inquiry,' J values were maintained at) ; attractive levels that in the .'main did not differ a great s 'deal from rates a year ago. when the market was on the . way up, and at the close of f last season. . On the basis of sales made to the trade and the -corporation’s offers, both » fine and coarser fleece wools > I were still mainly in the 200 c sto 250 c range. Compared - with the August sale last! , year the halfbred and Cor-1 - riedale wools looked a little t lower and second-shear,, crutchings, and oddments, j t)and skirtings were also back t)a little. But compared with lithe last sale in Christchurch j | in May values were very -similar. -( Crossbred values were: still shading the finer wools di with the bulk of the: e crossbred fleece that was r sold making from about 215 c) t to 245 c per kilogram. | f Crossbred wool topped the t market at 261 c. It was from the same vendor who headed

ithe sale last year at 264 c. 1 Halfbred and Corriedale 'wools were selling mainly front about 180 c to 220 c, and for a very small weight of Merino the range was (from about 210 c to 245 c. Second-shear crossbred 'wools brought from about 200 c to 220 c. The coarser crutchings sold relatively freely on the day compared (with other wools at about |l4oc to 175 c. and the finer crutchings were selling between about 118 c and 145 c. 'The coarser belly wools found buyers between about ) 150 c and 180 c, and occasion(ally the coarser necks managed to still top the 200 c mark. j It was not surprising that j 'the AWASP or adjusted weighted average sale price was well short of the new trigger price of 215 c. But it I was still 187.82 c which was ,not far short of last season’s (trigger of 195 c. I A disappointing feature of 'the sale was that a very good quality offering of )wool should have met such a hesitant inquiry from the trade. The early shorn fleece was described as being particularly good, and the crutchings and bellies were; also of a good average style, j i The limited trade inquiry' came mainly front Western land Eastern Europe, with (support from local mills. : Repealing the performance! of a year ago, D. C. Gregan (Hunter) topped the sale' ) with 12 bales of two-tooth (Crossbred wool bringing 261 c I per kg. Last year his wool sold to 264 c. Thirteen bales from R. A. Mathewson (Mayfield) realised 257 c and! 25 bales of two-tooth wool! from G. J. Hogg (Alburv)l sold for 255 c. Sales at 250 c were made by B. J. Guilford (Fairlie) for 22 bales of medium crossbred ewe and by Valley View Holdings (The: Brothers) for 14 bales ofj medium crossbred. I The best money paid for' Perendale wool was 256 c, which went to R. A. Mathewson for 16 bales of ewe wool, and he also had eight bales of two-tooth wool at| 251 c. J. R. Campbell (Pleasant i Point) sold six bales of (Coopworth two tooth woo! at 251 c and C. W. and M. Weir (Fairlie) sold nine: bales at 249 c. ■ Second-shear crossbred' (wool made to 231 c for 17j i bales of medium wool from) ij J. A. France and Son (Al-1 I bury). K. G. Guy (Albury)

(realised 226 c for four bales. P. W. Allport (Rosewill) had 10 bales at 223 c and the Estate C. I. Steele (Pleasant Point) received 222 c for 24 bales. Four bales of crossbred I crutchings from G. J. Hogg sold for 206 c, and another • four bales from B. J. Glass and Son (Albury) sold for 200 c. I or four bales of Perendale crutchings Timaunga Farm (Maungati) received 190 c. E. B. Glass and Sons (Albury) realised 189 c for four bales and D. Lundie and Sons (Pleasant Point) received 188 c for five bales. Baker Brothers (Levels) sold eight bales of Perendale crutchings for 187 c. Merino wool sold for 246 c for eight bales of fine wool from the Estate T. P. Lowe and Company (Ashburton). The same vendor also had four bales at 243 c, and five bales from H. F. Wallace (Waimate) brought the same money. A. W. Hedley (Waihaorunga) received 244 c for four bales of extra tine halfbred and 241 c for nine hales of fine halfbred. W. W. Hedley (Waihaorunga) realised 239 c for seven bales of medium halfbred ewe. : Corriedale wool sold to )233c for four bales of fine wool from Scott Brothers (Southburn), who also had seven bales of strong Coririedale at 220 c, L. G. and D. |H. Cochrane (Hakataramea | Valley) also sold six bales of extra fine Corriedale at 228 c. : Six bales of halfbred sec-ond-shear wool from Haydon Farm (Mayfield) sold for |2osc. Another four bales jfrom A. and T. Ellis l(Kurow) realised 195 c. : Fine wool crutchings sold (to 160 c for four bales of halfbred wool from W. A. Simpson (Kurow). The Mount Fortune Pastoral (Company (Hakataramea Valiley) had four bales of CorI riedale crutchings at 155 c. J. (P. Chapman (Mount Somers) also received 147 c for five bales of halfbred crutchings, and lone Farm (Ashburton) sold four bales of Corriedale (Wool for 146 c. ' Details of catalogues, in 'order of sale, were: Bales Wrightson NMA Ltd 4005 Pyne. Gould, Guinness I Ltd 2876 ! Canterbury Farmers’ I Co-op Assn. 2635 Dalgetv N.Z. Ltd. 2439 Total 11,955 I This offering included 102 bales of scoured wool.