Top five national wool buyers purchase 50 per cent of the Australian clip last season

Techwool Trading is living up to its own marketing as the top supplier of Australian greasy wool to the world after finishing the wool auction selling season at the top of the national buyers list, at 239,173, or 14.7 per cent of bales sold.

The vast majority of the Victorian based company’s purchases, 128,047 bales, were merino fleece, as it topped every selling region, purchasing 46,538 bales in total at the Western Wool Centre last season.

Endeavour Wool Exports, also based in Victoria, came in second nationally with 184,929 bales purchased, or 11.4 per cent, and fourth highest WA buyer at 29,181 bales.

It topped the merino skirtings offering with 46,781 bales purchased in this category.

Endeavour Wool buyer Steve Noa said he had been buying for Endeavour Wool for three years with “each year increasing our WA purchases”.

“This year we were benefited with a mostly superior merino selection for China, particularly in the first half of the season when our wools were very low in vegetable matter compared to Eastern Australia — this was of particular interest to Endeavour and their customers.

“Demand has been very hit and miss for the last few months and as a trading company we have had to play a cautious game being careful not to have too much stock in a falling market.”

Mr Noa said he was pleased to be able to get plenty of WA merino into Endeavour’s “extensive customers’ purchasing and while the short to medium term looks tough, I’m still optimistic of wool returning to above average prices in the long term”.

Chinese buyer Tianyu Wool, which came in third at the WWC with 35,553 purchased, and Victorian based companies Fox and Lillie and Australian Merino Exports rounded out the top five national spots on 10.3 per cent, 7.1 per cent and 5.8 per cent respectively.

Together the top five buyers purchased almost 50 per cent of the national clip.

The season saw a rise in the total number of bales offered, up 0.8 per cent, with 1,629,053 sold last season, with some active WA buyers taking up some of the top spots.

PJ Morris Wools came in sixth nationally with a total of 92,939 bales purchased, or 5.7 per cent, but as second-top buyer at the WWC with 45,869 bales bought locally.

Westcoast Wool purchased 19,369 at the WWC, taking 26,118 in total, or 1.6 per cent of the national clip.

Swan Wool Processors did almost all of its buying in WA, at 18,522 bales, with a total of 18,653, or 1.1 per cent nationally.

Fremantle Wool Trading purchased 13,841 bales with the vast majority from WA, at 0.8 per cent of the national total.

Scanlan Wools purchased just 1243 bales for the season — 0.1 per cent of the overall total clip.