China's cotton reserves will reach peak in 2012-13

15 Oct '12

2 min read

China’s national cotton reserves are expected to reach their peak and touch a saturation point by the end of the current cotton season 2012-13.

From September 2011 to March 2012, the Government procured 3.22 million tons of cotton for its state reserves. In addition, one million tons of cotton was imported and added to state reserves, which already had 300,000 tons of cotton from previous season. Thus, by March-end, China had 4.52 million tons of cotton in its state reserves.

During the same period, Chinese domestic cotton prices fluctuated between 18,500 yuan/ton to 22,000 yuan/ton.

In addition to state reserves, the Government had issued 3 million tons of quotas for cotton imports by the end of 2011. This included 894,000 tons under import quota of 1 percent tariff, 1.1 million tons under processing trade quotas and the remaining under sliding tax quotas.

Then in May 2012, sliding tax quotas were issued for import of 500,000 to 1 million tons of cotton, followed by issuance of processing trade quotas for 400,000 tons of cotton in August this year.

By the end of the 2012-13 season, China’s cotton reserves will reach their peak, according to experts. They add that the Government would have to release around 2-3 million tons of cotton annually from its state reserves in future.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - China

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