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The new wool selling season got underway on Wednesday with the Merino indicator closing on R111.63 kg for clean wool.
Cape Wools says the indicator was down 1.1% on the closing sale of the previous season but remained 9.5% up on the corresponding sale of the previous season.
The organisations says similar market conditions prevailed at the Australian market where the indicator dropped by 3.6%.
Cape Wools says traders reported a hesitancy among Chinese buyers which resulted in prices easing at this week's sale.
"On a positive note, good quality fine wools were keenly sought after due to firm demand from Europe, while high mid-break wools were discounted," Cape Wools said in a statement.
"The rand at R10,66 traded 0,8% stronger against the dollar compared with last week's average rate. At R14,17 it had gained 3,2% on average against the euro. The sale resulted in a 98% clearance of the 13 945 bales on offer. Most active traders were Standard Wool SA (4 794), Lempriere SA (2 707), G Modiano SA (2 570) and Stucken & Co (1 872)."
"The average clean prices for the selection within the different categories good top-making (MF5), long fleeces were as follows: 18 microns were up by 1,2% to close at R120,91/kg, 18,5 microns remained unchanged at R119,41/kg, 19 microns shed 0,2% to close at R117,91/kg, 19,5 microns dropped by 2,0% to close at R114,81/kg, 20 microns lost 1,6% to close at R112,08/kg, 20,5 microns decreased with 2,7% to close at R110,93/kg, 21 microns shed 3,0% to close at R110,26/kg, 21,5 microns decreased with 3,1% to close at R109,70/kg and 22 microns lost 3,8 % to close at R108,95/kg."
