Wool prices up at Dunedin sale

Press, 17 March 1987, Page 22

Wool prices up at Dunedin sale

PA Dunedin The shortfall in the national wool clip and a quality offering all helped lift prices at Friday’s Dunedin wool sale.

Prices were up on the last wool sale at Wellington on Thursday, and well ahead of the last Dunedin wool sale held three weeks ago.

The acting chairman of the Otago Woolbrokers’ Association, Mr D. Allen, agreed it was a strong sale, especially for the crossbred lines with length and good colour. But the quality was very good for most lines on offer.

The second-shear clip was generally a top offering with good colour and some high-yielding lines. With the recent rains many lines were yielding 80 to 90 per cent, which attracted competition from across the buying bench. The lambs’ wool offering was generally of good colour, although there were still some lines showing pen stain. With the onset of cooler

weather the lambs’ wool offering was expected to taper off quickly.

The Wool Board bid on 35 lots, 1.4 per cent of the offering, and bought 29 bales, 0.2 per cent of the offering. The 19,683 bales on offer included 938 bales from the Wool Board’s stockpile, which were all sold.

The official report said the offering was 17 per cent second-shear and 26 per cent lambs’ wool, with a very small offering of fine wools.

Compared with the Christchurch sale on March 5 Halfbred fleece was unchanged, cotts were 2.5 per cent dearer, and Halfbred lambs’ wool improved 4 per cent. Compared with the Wellington sale on March 12, crossbred fleece was 2.5 per cent dearer, with cotts unchanged. Crossbred second-shear was fully firm with lambs’ wool in sellers’ favour. Crossbred skirtings and clothing oddments were 3 per cent cheaper, and crossbred locks and second pieces were in

buyers’ favour. Competition was well spread, with Eastern Europe and the Far East the main buyers with support from Western Europe and restricted support from New Zealand mills. The market indicator for greasy wool was 432 c a kilogram, and 581 c for clean wool. Official prices were: Extra fine Halfbred, 125 micron: Good, — to 647. Extra fine Halfbred, 26 micron: Good, — to 624. Fine Halfbred, 27 micron: Good to super, — to 650. Fine Halfbred, 28 micron: Good to average, — to 591. Medium Halfbred, 29 micron: Good to average, — to 573. Medium crossbred, 36 micron: Good to super, — to 604, good, — to 599, poor, — to 591. Strong crossbred, 37 micron: Good to super, — to 602, good, — to 598, good to average, — to 594, poor, — to 590. Lambs’ wool Fine Halfbred, 26 micron: Good, — to 627. Crossbred, 31 micron: Good, — to 587. .