950824

Local lint values

post further gains

DR ZAFAR HASSAN

KARACHI: Due to the absence of cotton picking during the past week or so as the Hindus celebrated their Janam Asthami festival, as also due to cloudy weather during the same period, the arrivals of seed-cotton (kapas) into the ginning factories was interrupted, thus leading to further rise in the lint prices. Some withholding of seed-cotton/raw cotton by the cotton growers and the ginners to look for better prices is also said to have increased the lint prices. At the week-end on Thursday, an estimated 2300 1500 bales of new crop (1995-96) cotton from Sindh was sold covering the price range from Rs 2075 to Rs 2150 per maund. The reported cessation of sales of imported CIS lint a few days ago by the Cotton Export Corporation (CEC) beyond 60,000 bales is also said to be a factor responsible for the increase of local lint prices. The CEC is said to have been able to procure about 120,000 bales of imported CIS cotton for the outgoing season (1994-95) which it had been selling to the local spinners at Rs 2115 per maund.

In actual sales, 200 bales from Mirpurkhas/Sultanabad is said to have sold on Thursday at Rs 2075 per maund. Another 300 bales from Mirpurkhas is reported to have sold at Rs 2100 per maund. Later, a prominent ginner from Tando Adam is said to have sold 200 bales of cotton at Rs 2150 per maund. More sales of new crop cotton from Sindh are said to have transpired through an upcountry commission house for a leading Faisalabad mills, but the exact quantities could not be ascertained. There was anticipation in the market that the new crop lint prices would increase to Rs 2200 per maund by Thursday evening or on Saturday.

Seed-cotton (kapas) prices have also moved up to Rs 850 per 40 kg due to competition between the ginners to procure more seed-cotton. The price of cotton-seed (Binola/Kakra) was said to be about Rs 250 per maund. The Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) daily spot rates for cotton could not be filled due to lack of quorum on Thursday.

The New York cotton futures prices finished lower on Wednesday, but still remain at high levels. The October 1995 delivery closed at US cents 84.46 per pound on Wednesday (down by 89 points), the December 1995 delivery closed at US cents 82.21 per pound (down by 84 points), while the March 1996 delivery closed at US cents 83.08 per pound (down by 70 points). Textile mills around the world continue to hold the view that the rise in New York cotton futures prices is unwarranted if we view the still depressed prices of cotton yarns. The spinners are thus anticipating some fall in the New York cotton prices, unless negative factors such as bad weather or pest damage leads to possible decline in the estimates of lint yields or output for the next season (1995-96) in one or more of the major cotton growing countries.