Wool season closes

Fri, 13 Jun 2008

SA wool prices remained solid during the final wool sale of the season, Cape Wools said on Thursday.

"The Cape Wools' Merino indicator closed virtually unchanged at R61.42 per kilogram (clean)," said company spokesperson Ona Viljoen, in reaction to Wednesday's last sale.

"This is almost 10 percent up on the opening sale and 4.7 percent higher than at the same sale last season."

Viljoen said the average indicator for the season was up 28 percent compared with last season's average.

Wednesday's prices were mixed with finer qualities such as 21 microns and finer 70 mm lengths cheaper, while stronger qualities of similar length gained marginally.

Short wools attracted limited interest with prices generally finishing softer.

Viljoen said the rand on Wednesday provided some support to the market after falling to a two-month low against the dollar.

Viljoen said the last sale's offering was fairly large – some 13 593 bales of which 98 percent was sold.

Major buyers were Standard Wool SA (4074 bales); Modiano (3819 bales); Stucken (1870 bales); Beier Finances (981 bales), and Chargeurs Wool (948 bales).

Viljoen said the first sale of the 2008/2009 season would take place on 20 August.