Chinese cotton imports skyrocket in 2010

25 Aug '10

2 min read

China imported 169,000 tons of cotton in July, 4.7 percent less than June, but up 28.5 percent year on year and import prices continued to rise sharply. The average monthly price reached a new high of US $1,941 / ton, up $107 or 5.9 percent from June, and an increase of 44 percent, year on year.

In the first seven months of 2010, China's total cotton imports achieved 1.714 million tons, up 97.7 percent year on year. In the first 11 months of the cotton season 2009-10, China's total imports of cotton completed 2.264 million tons, up 69.4 percent year on year.

Among importing countries, the United States remained overwhelmingly the largest source country, but its proportion declined slightly; cotton imports from Australia grew fast and bagged the second place, which was occupied by India earlier and Uzbekistan retained the third place.

Cotton imports from the US registered 77,200 tons in July, down 15 percent from the previous month, accounting for 45.7 percent of China's total imports; those from Australia fetched 23,000 tons, up 1.2 times from the previous month, accounting for 29.7 percent of China's total imports.

Imports from Uzbekistan marked 29,000 tons, down 55.6 percent from the previous month, accounting for 7.7 percent and from India, they stood at just 1775 tons, down 74 percent from the previous month, accounting for only one percent of total imports, mainly due to the ban imposed by its government three months.

Import prices of cotton from various countries rose in July. Average import price of US cotton was $1938 / ton, up 5.6 percent from the previous month; Australian cotton was priced $2006/ ton, up 4.2 percent from its last month and Uzbek cotton stood at $1796/ ton, up 2.5 percent from June.

Fibre2fashion News Desk