Halfbred fleece wool rises by 5 p.c. at Chch

Press, 4 March 1982, Page 22

Halfbred fleece wool rises by 5 p.c. at Chch

Strong Halfbred fleece wool and Halfbred oddment prices increased. another 5 per cent on the first day of a two-day Christchurch wool sale yesterday. All fine wool descriptions were up in price on the previous fine wool sale at Dunedin on February 25 and all crossbred fleece wool descriptions were about 2.5 per cent dearer than the Auckland crossbred wool sale on February 26. Halfbred fleece prices have moved more than 10 per cent since the beginning of February with average increases of 2.5 per cent at Timaru. on February 5, another 2.5 to 3 per cent at Christchurch on February 11, 2.5 to 5 per cent at Dunedin on February 25 and 5 per cent on strong lines at Christchurch yesterday. There have' been cumulative increases totalling 25c to 30c a kilogram in most descriptions of Halfbred fleece wool since the first Christchurch sale of 1982, on January 20 and 22.

Fine Halfbred fleece wool, 56/58s ranged from 268 c to 342 c on the first day of that January sale and yesterday, about six weeks later, the

same category ranged from 295 c to 362 c. Medium Halfbred fleece wool, 54/565, ranged from 258 to 327 c in January and yesterday made 270 c to 330 c. Strong Halfbred. fleece wool, 50/545, was within 253 c to 301 c in January and yesterday was showing a substantial improvement at 281 c to 333 c a kilogram. Together with steady increases in prices paid throughout New Zealand for crossbred wools, the sustained lift in fine wool prices has been reflected in the adjusted weighted average sale price which was about 256 c in January and after yesterday’s sale stood at 270.58 c a kilogram. The market indicator for yesterday’s sale was 268 c, 21c better than the last Christchurch sale on January 22. The much better prices being received for Canterbury, Marlborough and West Coast wool have also resulted in a considerable reduction in Wool Board activity at the sales, and the extent of its supplementary price support. The board was yesterday required to bid on only 4 per cent of the offering, or 809

bales, and it bought or had passed to it about 0.6 per cent, or 127 bales out of nearly 20,000 bales in the sale.. This is in sharp contrast to the board’s activity during the two-day January sale when it bid on 27 per cent over-all and ended up with about 6 per cent of the 40,000 bales. The Wool Board has in recent weeks been forced to take large quantities of inferior wools put up for sale, but unwanted by buyers. This was not markedly the case at Christchurch yesterday although the board’s supplementary assistance, despite being much diminished since January, was still required on some Halfbred and Corriedale lambs’ wool, short crossbred oddments and faulty Halfbred lambs’ wool. . With regard to fine lambs’ wool, there was yesterday a wide gap between prices paid for good or even average lines and those lines heavily faulted. This is a seasonal problem and stems mainly from excessive seed and bur in fine lambs’ wool which certainly depresses prices, particularly in the shorter wools.

If the high, vegetable content occurs in lamb’s wools - that are longer it is possible for processors to comb it out, but in short wool it is very difficult to remove. . The seasonal problem arises because of dry conditions forcing stock .on to poorer country and in many cases cannot be avoided by farmers. With the reduction in board supplementation, the Government support under the supplementary minimum prices scheme has also been reduced. The better wool market over-all means that on yesterday’s Christchurch sale the Government supplement was 18.3 per cent, compared with 25 per cent only six weeks ago. The stronger tone of the wool market is less evident in crossbred and coarse wools but lower quality descriptions — in fine,' medium and strong — have improved about 20c a kilogram from January to yesterday. At the top end of the crossbred ranges the improvement is only about 10c a kilogram. At yesterday’s sale fine crossbred fleece wools were fully 2.5 per cent up on the

Auckland sale of February 26. Coarse crossbred fleeces, including cottings, were quoted at up to 2.5 per cent dearer. Crossbred second-shear, skirtings, lambs’ wool, and short oddments were in sellers’ favour compared with Auckland. The actual quotations for the fine fleece wools compared with Dunedin on February 25 were Merino fleece wool, to 2 per cent dearer on a small offering; fine Halfbred fleece, firm; medium, sellers’ favour; and strong fleece wools (as mentioned above) fully 5 per cent dearer. The Halfbred skirtings were generally unchanged pn Dunedin and the short oddments were 5 per cent dearer. Competition was general for all descriptions, with obviously keen demand for strong Halfbred fleece wool. Main buyers were eastern and western Europe and Japan, supported by local mills and the Far East.