South Africa : Strong rand pushes wool market down

February 28, 2008

Due to the stronger rand, the market retracted marginally from last week’s price levels and Cape Wools’ Merino indicator closed 2.2% softer at R68,16/kg (clean).

This was in tandem with the Australian market, which closed 2.3% down on last week’s levels.

Quality wools, however, are still fetching excellent prices and there was good demand for from all sectors of the trade for these types.

The rand, which had recovered much of its losses since the previous sale two weeks ago, was trading 3% firmer against the US dollar at R7.46, while it was virtually unchanged against the euro at R.11.23.

Fine wools were the most affected with 19 microns posting the biggest decline. Medium to stronger wools were on average 3% to 4% cheaper.

It was a fairly large offering, totaling 10 499 bales of which 96% were sold. Major buyers were Modiano (2 166 bales); Standard Wool SA (1 998 bales); Chargeurs Wool (1 901 bales); Lempriere (Aust) Ltd (1 346 bales) and Stucken (1 227 bales).

Read Full News Click Here