"Volumes are down, there's no question about that," New Zealand Wool Services International general manager John Dawson told Rural News.
At 9,800 bales offered volume was 1500-2000 bales back on this time last year. Sheep too wet to shear and maybe a legacy of the drought in the north, plus the ongoing swing to lower wool yield composites, are the main factors, he says.
Increasing use of contracts is also a factor.
"There's more wool going around [bypassing] the auction for sure, if our company's anything to go by. About 60% doesn't go through the auction now whereas it used to be pretty much 50/50."
Second shear all styles 3-4 inches and shorter and related oddments made up 80% of today's offering and were up to 3% dearer, leaving the strong wool indicator at $5.30/kg clean.
"That's pretty much the highest it's been all season and about 90c/kg ahead of where we were last year. That's not bad considering the currency."
The weighted indicator for the main currencies compared to the last week's South Island sale, June 5, was up 2.23%. Longer wools all styles today were generally unchanged compared with last week's South Island auction. Overall there was a 96% clearance.
NZWSI says China supported by India, Western Europe and Australasian carpet mills were the principal buyers with exporters buying to cover close-in contractual obligations
Next week's South Island sale has been cancelled due to lack of wool coming forward. Consequently the next and final sales for the 2013/14 season will be in both the North and South Island on June 26 with 10,500 and 14,000 bales rostered respectively.
Dawson doesn't believe the double sale will affect the market.
"Most companies have buyers in both islands, or if not, they have agents that will handle the business for them."
