Buyers for China were dominant with other buying support from Europe and Taiwan in particular, India and Korea.

Sales will be held in Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle next week, when 36,522 bales are currently rostered for sale. Present estimates for the following two sales (Weeks 49 and 50) are 24,484 (Sydney and Melbourne only selling) and 30,700 bales, respectively; a decrease of 9.2% over the three sale period when compared with last year.

In South African sales, the Cape Wools Indicator was up by 12.8% since the last sale two weeks against a 4.0% depreciation of the Rand against the US Dollar and a 1.5% depreciation against the Euro. 8,649 bales were on offer. This was the second last sale before the end of the season.

The Cape Wools Indicator has risen by 65.4% in Rand and by 71.0% in US currency since the start of the South African season.