Wool price boom tipped on recent sale results

Press, 31 January 1984, Page 1

Wool price boom tipped on recent sale results

PA Wellington A strong lift in wool prices this month has brought hope to the industry that wool sales may be poised to take off.

The Wool Board’s market indicator yesterday hit the highest mark recorded this season, rising to 312 c a kilogram for the 20,000 bales of Invercargill wool sold in Christchurch. That is a substantial lift on the indicator level at the end of 1983 of 280 c a kilogram, and a sizeable increase on the levels at the same time during the 1982-83 season, when the indicator hovered around the 230 c to 240 c level in January, 1983. It came at the end of one of the heaviest selling months of the season, when a total of 282,000 bales went through the auction rooms. Prices for January started at 288 c and then steadily rose. In the first half of the season, the indicator moved around 270 c to 280 c, disap-

pointing early predictions that it could climb through the 320 c mark, but still giving a firm, if unspectacular improvement on the previous season’s prices. The Wool Board’s deputy managing director, Mr Noel Thomas, believes the signs are hopeful. “The market has ' absorbed a record amount of wool,” he said. “At this stage it is showing strength.” “I do not expect major movements because the best of the wool will soon have been sold, but there is every reason for optimism. Indications are that there will be an improvement.” Compared with the previous season, prices had risen 11 per cent, taking devaluation into account, by the end of December. The actual lift

was 18 per cent. Wool Board stocks have fallen well below the disastrous peak level of 422,000 bales in July, 1982. By the end of December the level had fallen to 180,000 bales, from 285,000 in July, the start of the season. “The composition of the stocks has come more into balance,” Mr Thomas said. “We did have a high proportion of lower style wools when stock levels were at their height, and we have been able to even that out.” Government supplementation has also dropped. The supplementary minimum price pay-out for the first half of the season was $29 million. The pay-out for the 1982-83 season was 5176 million. Sale report, page 20