Wool prices have slightly declined in local currency terms, this week in Australia. The market continues being negatively affected by quality issues. Demand from China has surged on the global wool market in the last 10 years, as reflected by our import data covering the 2008-2018 period.
The wool market has kept its current trends unchanged this week in Australia.
The benchmark indicator has slightly declined in local currency terms, losing 4 cents per kilo clean at 1,943 cents.
Prices have actually dropped in medium micron categories whereas being strong in crossbred categories.
Fine fiber prices have behaved differently, depending on the quality of available lots.
Prices have more dropped in Melbourne than in Sydney, as a result.
China’s wool imports in last 10 years
We below release China’s 10-year wool import data confirming the sharp rise of the last two years in dollar terms.
Imports have surged 17.3% in 2017 before further rising 16.3% in the last year.
Interestingly, shipments have also increased in volume terms, although less significantly, being up 8.6% and 5.4% in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
In ten years, China’s wool imports have gained 89% in dollar terms, however only rising 29% in volume terms with unit prices up 47%.
The surge of unit values reflects the sharp rise of wool prices in Australia and elsewhere.
It is also partly be due to a larger share of dearer fine fibers in total Chinese imports.
Source: Emergingtextiles
