Oz wool market goes it alone

19th June 2026

THE Australian wool market in Sydney and Melbourne last week was the only official auction across the globe as all other markets were either in recess for a week, closed down for the season or have simply sold out of current supplies of fresh wool.  Thus supply is still the talk of the trade at present and many are pondering what will happen to prices in the new season with the increasing belief that prices are unlikely to drop all that much from their current levels despite the market having a ‘toppy’ feel about it.  There will no doubt be some adjustments but certainly not as we have seen in the past when a strong rise is inevitably followed by an equally savage fall.

The AWEX EMI rose by 10 cents although many traders felt that it would have been stronger except for the low quality selection in Sydney especially where higher vm and part-tender wools discouraged buyers.  Due to the composition of the basket indicators the market reports showed a negative movement for virtually the whole market in Sydney on Wednesday, when in reality any good quality types were dearer to buy.  Most combing mills decided to leave their quotes unchanged for the week and just have individual discussions on a client by client basis.  There is enough older wool in the system, and still a keen desire to sell from the large topmakers that actual replacement cost of the greasy wool is not the main driver in these conversations.  Some old forward contracts which are now coming due for delivery are dollars below the current market and depending on the hedging strategies may or may not be causing a lot of pain.

A stronger Australian Dollar week meant that greasy wool prices rose by 20 US cents to keep things moving but there was very little complaining from those overseas.  In Europe where business remains very, very quiet greasy wool prices rose by only 8 Euro cents.  Chinese buyers saw a 0.9 RMB/kg increase in prices for the week, but no doubt saw some individual offers for better quality types rise by much more than that.  Many Chinese buyers lament the fact that it is difficult to get a firm offer these days as Australian exporters remain reluctant to offer without having the stock at least partly in hand.  In the crossbred sector this is particularly pertinent as supplies dry up and demand increases on the back of the New Zealand market which in some off market tenders this week was up a further 20 cents.  

The Chinese fraternity took a day off on Friday for the Annual Dragon Boat Festival which primarily commemorates the death of the patriotic poet and minister Qu Yuan, but no doubt there will be still plenty of discussions and banquets with visiting wool travellers.  This week sees the annual ITWO Congress held in Danang and there are plenty of wool traders from across the globe using the conference as a reason to visit and discuss business prior to the actual proceedings.  The IWTO meeting will address the usual plethora of industry specific committee meetings but also importantly launch the Green Book.  This publication sets out to dispel the blatant mistruths and fallacies created by other fibres in their attempts at greenwashing.  Using peer-reviewed science, independently verified data IWTO and the wool industry has created a series of standards to outline the sustainability of the wool fibre.  Rather than sit back and allow wool’s story to be tarnished by dodgy scientific analysis the industry has jumped on the front foot and by being proactive will hopefully protect the position in the marketplace which everyone has strived so hard to achieve in recent years.

Another gathering of textile aficionados will also take place in Florence, Italy at the 99th Edition of Pitti Filati.  Although as usual in June the exhibition will focus on the upcoming Spring/Summer collection, with the Autumn/Winter yarns having been showcased already back in January.  All of the leading European spinners will be exhibiting their latest creations and many others from both ends of the production pipeline will visit to chat, listen and learn about future direction and hopes for the wool industry and no doubt discuss where the wool price is likely to go in the next few months.  After a couple of espresso’s or maybe a cappuccino provided it is before 11am there will be plenty of frenzied discussion no doubt as the Italian fraternity try to work out if it is too late for them to join the fray, as they have been noticeably absent in this particular cycle.

While in the US they celebrated Juneteenth Day which commemorates the end of slavery in the United States on June 19th, 1865, others there and around the globe are trying to decipher the MOU which was signed in Switzerland.  How this document develops and how the global economy responds in coming weeks and months will be critical for the next stage of the wool market.  Even though there is a ‘toppy’ feeling among those in the auction rooms in Australia nobody can see how the market can possibly go down with current volumes on offer.  Next week in Australia, with all three centres in operation we have less than 28,000 bales being sold.  Auction proceeds from next week’s sale fall into the new Financial Year which often sees week 52 as a larger offering but it is around 2,000 bales less than the corresponding sale last year.  Similarly looking forward for the next couple of weeks volumes continue to track 3-6 thousand bales lower than last year.  So the spring flush this year may not be much of a flush, and if the global economy does get back on track with lower oil prices today’s wool prices may become the new normal.  We certainly won’t see much change to prices this week.