A MATTER OF WOOL PRICES

Press, 12 April 1979, Page 13

A MATTER OF WOOL PRICES

The AW ASP or adjusted weighted average sale price for last Friday’s Christchurch wool sale was 239.94 c per kg, which indicated that the sale was still a pretty good one, if not quite so good overall as the two-day sale in February when the AWASP was 244.1 c.

The AWASP seeks to put every sale on a comparable basis in relation to the national clip, and because nationally the coarser wools are the dominant types it tends to give more weight to the prices paid for those wools. Therefore the AWASP for the two-day sale in February was 244.1 c per kg but the sale average was, in fact, 236.77 c reflecting the effect of the prices of the finer wools which predominate in the Christchurch sale and which w'ere selling at lower levels in February in relation to the crossbreds. Last week the crossbreds did not seem to be selling

so well as in February but the finer wools on the other hand seemed to be faring better, so that on this occasion the average sale price and the AWASP could be closer than in February. Indications are that the average could be about 234 c to 235 c. The average price for the February sale was the highest since November, 1976, when the sale figure was 234.088 c. That sale average was actually in straight monetary terms, without making any allowance for depreciation in the value of money, the highest average since the Korean wool boom of 25 years previously, so in similar terms the February average this year is now the highest since that time. Indicating just how much the market is currently better than it was at the beginning of this year, the AWASP for the two-day Christchurch sale in January was 205,14 c.