Fed: Aust wool stockpile sold

AAP General News (Australia)
08-03-2001
Fed: Aust wool stockpile sold

By Shane Wright

CANBERRA, Aug 3 AAP - The `sold out' sign has been put up on the Australian wool stockpile.

WoolStock chairman Donald McGauchie said today the stockpile, which at its height reached
more than four million bales, was effectively gone.

A handful of 200kg bales was still sitting in empty warehouses in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne
and Brisbane, but for all intents and purposes the stockpile had been sold off.

Mr McGauchie could hardly control his excitement about the demise of the stockpile.

"It's bloody marvellous," he said.

"This is something the industry has been looking forward to for a long, long time,
and we've finally got there."

At its peak in the early 1990s, the Australian wool stockpile was so big that if every
bale was sat side-by-side it would reach from Brisbane to Perth, with some left over.

In the past week, it has diminished from around 4,000 bales to a few specialist bales
that will be targeted at European wool spinners.

Mr McGauchie said for so long the stockpile had hung around the necks of Australian
woolgrowers, driving prices down and making sales difficult.

Now the decks were clear in the Australian wool market.

"We started the week with about 4,000 bales, and we've moved those pretty quickly so
for all intents and purposes, it's gone," he said.

"What's left is pretty specialist so its more appealing to European buyers rather than
China or our Asian buyers."

With the stockpile's demise, so goes WoolStock.

The publicly listed company will now start the process of liquidation.

WoolStock shareholders will get a payment in September, with probably one final payment
after that.

Mr McGauchie said it was unusual to be involved in a company that was voluntarily winding
up, and everyone involved in the process was happy.

"Normally when you liquidate a company, people are pretty unhappy and it's done in
the worst circumstances, but this time we're looking forward to it," he said.

The end of the stockpile coincides with continued strength in the wool sector, with
exports up to a five-year high this week while prices remain around the 800 cents a kilogram
mark.

AAP sw/daw/vr

KEYWORD: WOOL

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