Cotton import sources witness major changes in July

20 Aug '09

2 min read

The 2008 international cotton season has ended and as per statistics, China imported 1.524 million tons of cotton in total, representing a 39 percent decline from the previous year and in July it imported 131,400 tons, down 22.1 percent from the previous month.

The July figure is also down by 38.2 percent year-on-year. The import value in the same month touched US $177 million, down 15.9 percent from the previous month and 50.9 percent year-on-year.

Average price of cotton imports in July continued to rise and average import price stood at $1,346 per ton, up 7.9 percent from the previous month, but down 20.6 percent year-on-year.

In the period September-July, China's total cotton imports reached 1.337 million tons, down 40.6 percent year-on-year and the average import price stood at $1,406 per ton, down 12.4 percent year-on-year.

Sources of imports witnessed major changes in July. Proportion of imports from the United States significantly decreased, while imports from India picked up significantly and imports from Australia and Africa also continued to increase.

In July, cotton imports from the United States were 39,400 tons, a significant reduction of 53.2 percent from the previous month, accounting for 30 percent of China's total imports. Imports from India increased to 28,400 tons, representing an increase of 1.4 times from June and represented 21.6 percent of China's total cotton imports.

Imports from Australia were 15,700 tons, representing an 8 percent growth from June, and accounting for 11.9 percent of cotton imports. From average import prices of major countries, prices from most countries rose sharply from that in June.

Import prices from the US in July were $1,405 per ton and also grew the highest amongst all suppliers in rising by $167 per ton from June. Price from Uzbekistan was still the lowest price at $1,246 per ton, up $92 per ton from June and those from India averaged at US $1,327 per ton, up $81 per ton from June.

From quotas, July imports outside tariff quotas registered 12,600 tons under temporary floating tariff, accounting for 9.6 percent of total imports. Imports within quotas formed 87 percent, while import outside quotas took a share of 3.4 percent of China's total imports.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - China

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