Safeguard measures introduced by the United States to stem the surge of Chinese textile imports following the abolition of the Multi Fiber Agreement in January 2005 will temper the pace of decline of Korean textile exports to the US market.
Production Korea does not produce raw cotton and depends on imports to meet demand.
Consumption Korean raw cotton consumption in MY 2006/07 is expected to total 279,936 mt in line with recovering apparel consumption and the addition of two new cotton-processing facilities.
The introduction of two new facilities with 118,000 new spindles in January 2007 follows on the heels of the destruction of a local cotton-processing facility by fire on September 24, 2005.
The fire destroyed 23,000 mt of raw cotton processing capacity and coupled with the appreciating won, are expected to cause a decrease in consumption to 275,911 mt for MY 2005/06.
Trade Korea's raw cotton imports are expected to recover in MY 2006/07 to 285,638 mt, a 13,601- mt increase over the previous year in anticipation of the two new cotton-processing facilities.
Despite the appreciation of the Korean won against the US dollar the relative high import price of U.S. raw cotton may push some Korean cotton spinners to use Australian and Brazilian raw cotton. Average import prices have fluctuated between 56 and 59 cents per pound while US raw cotton prices stood at 61 cents per pound in February 2006.
-Ltd..jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Thermore (Far East) Ltd.")
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited (TSllC Ltd)")
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Taiwan Textile Federation (TTF)")
