Prices well up at early wool sale

Press, 23 August 1979, Page 24

Prices well up at early wool sale

Wool prices were at completely new levels compared with those at the end of last season when the first Canterbury’ sale of the new season began at the Wool Exchange at Addington yesterday.

The sale was of Timaru brokers’ wools; it was held in Christchurch, as has been the case for several years now at this time of the year. Prices topped the 300 cents per kilogram mark when the twenty-second lot of the day was* reached — for 50 bales of Perendale wool — and this was repeated regularly thereafter. j On the basis of prices paid yesterday coarser fleece looked to be making about 30 to 40 cents more than closing rates in Christchurch last May and halfbred and Corriedale fleece was up by fuilv 20 to 30 cents. Whereas in May most fleece was bringing between 225 and 250 cents, yesterday it -'as selling mainly between 250 cents and 300 cents.

It was again a great occasion for crossbred wools, which easily headed the finer quality wool. They frequently topped the 300 cents mark but the finer wools reached this level only occasionally. The I crossbred fleece wools looked to have an edge of 15 to 25 cents. However, for almost all classes of wool the sale could be regarded as one of I the best ever held in Christ-1

Although perhaps a little! more erratic than in Dun-. edin last week, the market! showed very little variation! from the greatly improved! rates reached at the recent Napier and Dunedin sales. For the crossbred wools, which predominated in the selection, fleece wools were generally unchanged on last week’s Invercargill rates, and this also applied to sec-ond-shear wools and skirtings. Short oddments were actually slightly dearer and crossbred crutchings improved by up to 21 per cent. | There was a similar story] with the finer wools. Halfbred and Corridale fleece maintained rates similar to i those at the Dunedin fine-1 wool sale last week, and if] anything were slightly dea-l rer, but there were some] who believed that rates were slightly easier at the close. Whereas halfbred crutchings lost a little ground, halfbred skirtings firmed slightly. Most of the crossbred fleece sold between about 270 and 300 cents, about 30 to 40 cents up on the last Christchurch sale in May, and about 50 to 60 cents better than at the Timaru sale a year ago. For the third year in sue-1 cession D. C. Gregan (Hunter) topped the market for crossbred fleece wool and on this occasion his price was also the highest of the sale. For 12 bales of crossbred twotooth wool he received 326 cents.

A notable sale for Romney wool was obtained by H. L. Steele (Pleasant Point), with 95 bales making from

>306 to 316 cents per kg. G. J. jHogg (Albury) also had 17 I bales of Border Romney mak- ] mg 321 cents and 16 bales of Romney at 317 cents. Coopworth wools had a i particularly good day also. I One vendor, J. R. Campbell j (Cave) )realised from 309 to 323 cents for 32 bales. ] Second-shear crossbred wool ranged mainly from 1250 to 300 cents and coarse | crutchings were traded mainly between 210 and 232 I cents.

In the fine-wool sections the halfbreds and Corriedales sold regularly between 255 icents and 275 cents and at ] these levels were about 20 to 30 cents ahead of last May’s I rates and 40 to 55 cents betiter than a year ago. But only I a handful topped the 300 cents mark.

- One of those in this category was A. W. Milne (Albury), who sold four bales of strong halfbred two-tooth wool at 303 cents and another 16 bales at 289 to 291 cents. Out of a big line of Corriedale wool from South Canterbury, Hakataramea Station had 401 bales making from 255 cents to 276 cents and another 17 bales of neck wool which brought 273 I cents.

There was only a little Merino wool in the offering but T. P. Lowe and Company (Windermere) realised up to 317 cents and sold 21 bales of fleece from 285 cents to the top figure, with another two bales of necks making 277 cents. It was a good day for all classes of wool and even crossbred cots were topping the 250 cents mark regularly an<’ ranging up to 268 cents. Among neck wools the finer qualities were bringing from 247 to 273 cents and crossbred necks from 245 to 273 cents; The fine pieces were making from 198 to 230 cents and coarser wools from 217 to 270 cents, and fine bellies ranged from 185 t’ 248 cents, with coarser sorts making from 186 to 249 cents. Fine crutchings also ranged mainly from 180 to 230 cents with Merino at the top end. The sale held up well all day and the Wool Board largely had a watching brief.

Operating under its strata price control system in supporting weak spots in the market the board bid on 888 bales, oi 5.9 per cent of the offering, and had sold or oassed to it a total of 134 bales or 0.89 per cent of the wool offered. Total passings tr the board and trade totalled 685 bales, or 4.5 per cent.

The Timaru wool offering consisted of 15,227 bales of greasy wool and 87 bales of scoured wool and one bale of slipe wool. It was drawn mainly from Mid and South Canterbury and North Otago.

At the end of the sale of the Timaru wools Southland wool that could not be fitted into the Dunedin and Invercargill sale at Dunedin last week was put up for auction. This comprised about 4400 bales of mainly

crutchings and short oddments and although it met competition from a reduced bench of buyers it still brought prices about rates ruling earlier in the day. The main competition yesterday came from the Middle East, Japan, and Eastern Europe, with some support from Bradford, and New Zealand and Australian carpet mills. As already mentioned, the top price of the sale of 326 c wa received by D. C. Gregan (Hunter) for 12 bales of crossbred wool. G. J. Kinney (Pleasant Point) realised 320 c for 12 bales of medium crossbred and he also had four bales of extra fine crossbred at 318 c. Sales at 318 c were also made by H. and N. Bruce (Geraldine) for four bales of ewe wool, by R. Gliddon and Son (Taiko) for 10 bales, and by B. W. Moyle (Bluecliffs) for nine bales.

G. J. Hogg (Albury) sold 16 bales of Romney wool at 317 c and H. L. Steele (Pleasant Point) had 21 bales of two-tooth Romney at 316 c. Border-Romney wool made to 321 cents for 17 bales from G. J. Hogg (Albury) and Coopworth to 323 c for seven bales of two-tooth wool from J. R. Campbell (Cave). One of the best sales for second-shear Romney wool was 307 c for 30 bales from P. W. Allport (Hadlow). R. J. Clouston (Albury) realised 305 c for 10 bales and a sale at 303 c was made by A. C. Boyce (Waimate) for five bales.

Coarse crutchings made to 273 cents for seven bales of crossbred wool in the bins of the Canterbury Farmers’ CoOperative Association. Wrightson NMA Ltd also had 18 bales of crossbred wool in their bins which brought 265 c, and this price was also paid to R. C. Batchelor (Mayfield) for four bales of Coopworth crutchings. For four bales of crutchings G. J. Hogg received 259 c. Merino made to 317 c for three bales of warp from T. P. Lowe and Company (Windermere). They also had sales of Merino at 306 c for nine bales and 304 c for six bales.

A. W. Milne (Albury) had four bales of strong halfbred two-tooth at 303 c and also lots of 12 bales at 291 c and four bales at 289 c. The best money for Corriedale wool was 293 c for five bales of medium ewe wool from R. F. McLeod (Oamaru), who also had six bales at 281 c. Elderton Bros. (Waimate) sold four bales of Corriedale ewe wool at 287 c. Fine crutchings brought to 234 c for seven bales of Merino wool from Mt Possession Station (Mt Somers). Corriedale crutchings brought to 215 c for five bales from I. G. Murdoch (Mayfield). Thanet Farm Ltd (Ikawai) had eight bales of halfbred crutchings at 213 c. Details of catalogues in order of sale were: Dalgety New Zealand Ltd, 3474 bales; Canterbury Farmers’ Cooperative Association, 3838 bales; Pyne, Gould, Guinness Ltd, 3721; Witghtson NMA Ltd, 4282 bales; total 15,315 bales.