This week, with the EMI down 14c/kg, it closed for the week on Thursday on 859c/kg, nearly 20pc below the peaks of February. (See separate story).

This week's closing values for the regional indicators were:

• North (Newcastle sale), down 9c/kg (-1.0pc), to 895c/kg.

• South (Melbourne), down 19c/kg (-2.2pc), to 829c/kg.

• West in Fremantle, down by 2c (-0.2pc), finishing the week at 842c/kg.

In a three-day Newcastle sale and a two-day sale in Melbourne, the EMI was unchanged on Tuesday, but then fell by 6c/kg on Wednesday and by 8c/kg on Thursday.

In a week of softer demand, the sales opened with prices down across all micron ranges in the Newcastle sale on Tuesday.

This was followed with further falls on Wednesday and Thursday, apart from the fine wools in Newcastle where some best spinners types, with good strength values, were on offer and attracted good competition.

Buyers for China were dominant, with strong support from buyers for Europe at the Newcastle sale.

This week's sales opened against the background of a slightly stronger $A against the $US, steadying after some of those steep falls in the exchange rate in recent weeks.

By the close of sales on Thursday, the $A stood at US87.29c, up 0.26c (+0.3pc) since the previous week's sale.

The exchange rate against the euro also rose, by 0.49 euro cents (+0.8pc), to close at 59.02 euro cents on Thursday night.

So, when looked at in other currencies, the EMI for the week fell by 10c/kg (-1.3pc) in US terms and by 4c/kg (-0.8pc) in euro terms, compared with the previous sale.

A total of 41,657 bales were on offer at the three centres (39,098 bales last week), and 12.7pc were passed in and 1218 bales (2.8pc) were withdrawn before the sale.

Re-offered bales made up 16.1pc of the week's offering.

Next week, sales will be held in Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle, with 43,296 bales currently rostered for sale.

Present estimates for the following two sales vary from 44,690 to 47,900 bales each - a fall of 6.7pc over the three sale period when compared with last year's equivalent sales.

The New Zealand Merino Company will also offer 1609 bales in Melbourne next week in their first Australian sale of the season.

The $A against the $US had risen by US34c at the start of this week, when compared with the rate on Thursday of last week, after the sharp falls in the $A since the start of August.