Aluminium and wood stiffen July commodity prices

Logs ready for export at the Northland's new deep water port at Marsden Point. Photo / Northern Advocate.

Aluminium and wood products have helped the ANZ Commodity Index post a 1 per cent rise in July - the fifth consecutive monthly increase.

The cumulative rise in the index since the recent trough in February this year was 7.8 per cent as eight commodities registered a rise in prices in July, while five recorded a drop, ANZ said today.

Aluminium topped the monthly increases, lifting 6.7 per cent from June, to sit 26 per cent above the low measured in February.

Forestry products recorded the next tier of price increases, with wood pulp up 3.4 per cent, lumber up 2.5 per cent and logs up 2.1 per cent.

Beef prices increased 1.4 per cent and wool prices improved 0.8 per cent.

The all-important international dairy price nudged up 0.6 per cent in July, while venison prices inched up 0.3 per cent.

Seafood prices recorded the largest monthly decline across the monitored export commodity basket, dropping 2.2 per cent in July.

It was the ninth successive drop in the benchmark seafood price series, returning prices back to levels of two years ago.

Seasonal falls in kiwifruit (-1.6 per cent) and apple prices (-0.4 per cent) was noted, as the Northern Hemisphere export season matures.

Lastly, lamb prices eased 1.4 per cent in July and skin prices dipped 0.4 per cent.

With the exception of the Japanese yen, when averaged over the month the New Zealand dollar firmed against all the currencies of New Zealand's main trading nations in July.

Consequently, the ANZ NZ Dollar Commodity Price Index only recorded a very minor (0.1 per cent) rise in July.

- NZPA