WOOL industry analysts hope Chinese interest and lower supplies will translate to good prices next year.
While values slid in the weeks leading up to the Christmas break, the market closed on a higher note.
And year-on-year statistics show positive signs for broader micron wools.
All wools 19-micron and broader were selling at a premium to a year earlier when sales finished in mid-December.
Anything finer than 19 micron, though, sold at cheaper rates than 12 months ago, with 17.5 micron down 8.1 per cent on a year ago.
In contrast, wool broader than 19 micron sold at rates up to 32 per cent higher.
Now producers, exporters and processors will anxiously wait to see where the market goes when sales resume next month.
Australian Council of Wool Exporters and Processors executive director Peter Morgan said supply would remain an issue for buyers.
"January to June offerings in 2012 are likely to be less than in 2011, because of the amount of on-farm and in-store wool that came on to the market in the similar timeframe this year, in response to the market," Mr Morgan said.
"The Chinese domestic market is likely to continue as a positive, but cotton prices are moving down, so this may have a negative impact.
"Globally, economic confidence will have some impact, in either direction."
Mr Morgan said the fall in superfine wool prices could not be put down to European monetary issues, as Italy had remained a major buyer.
"Perhaps the prices went too high last year after a few years in the doldrums," he said.
Meanwhile, the National Australia Bank has predicted wool prices will average 1139c/kg for 2011-12 in its December Rural Commodities Wrap.
To date, the Eastern Market Indicator has averaged 1233c/kg for the selling season, 302c/kg higher than for the same period last year.
NAB agribusiness general manager Khan Horne said wool prices were still at historical highs, but "face considerable head winds".
"Looking ahead, demand will be further impacted by the relatively high prices for wool compared with alternative fibres, downgrades to global growth and, most notably, weakness in the big developed economies which are major consumers of wool products," Mr Horne said.
But he said producers shouldn't think wool prices would continue to fall dramatically.
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