Comment

As a direct result of last week’s strong market rally, we had a large weekly offering of just below 50,000 bales. With the auction in Fremantle the week before giving a poor lead into the sale in Melbourne on Tuesday, some exporters were expecting the worst. However modest loses were recorded and they weren’t to the extent of the loses realised in Fremantle the Thursday prior. This encouraged a much more positive market tone on Wednesday with prices improving marginally again on Thursday. The close in Fremantle was stronger than that in Melbourne and Sydney. There was a small but useful superfine offering in Sydney. Some volume of extra-fine types (13.0/16.0 micron) that were somewhat drought affected were keenly sort after by Italian and Chinese interests. Most were short length and contained a degree of tender but still sold in a competitive market.