KARACHI, April 8: Cotton market passed through another cheerless session on the week’s opening session as were conspicuous by their absence despite the fact that ginners were willing sellers at the previous levels.

“Ginners and spinners are locked in a battle of wits over the issue of selling price but both have taken rigid positions and are not inclined to entertain each other,” says a dealer.

Floor brokers said higher crop estimates had reinforced the spinner perceptions that prices may not rise from the current levels as the future supplies are expected to remain fairly comfortable.

“The lint intake of both the organized and the unorganized mill sectors may touch the peak level of well over 10m bales but there is a little possibility of short supply till the end of the seasons,” they said.

Basing their assessment on the monthly mill consumption figure of well over 0.850m bales, the annual intake could set a new record, signalling a major breakthrough on the export front.

In addition to a higher crop figure of about 10.5m bales, spinners have already imported 0.775m bales since Sept 1, 2001 for blending purpose and to spin higher counts of yarn for the export markets.

Although export of cotton yarn is maintained on the higher side those of cloth and other value-added products are slightly below the previous year’s figure.

“The post-Sept 11 textile market was terribly sluggish in the absence of fresh export orders from any quarter,” says a leading spinners, adding “but now the situation is improving, although it may not be possible to recoup earlier losses on the export front.”

The yarn offtake of the ancillary industry is also picking up after the increase in quota by the US and the European Union and that could well lead to an increase in export during the last quarter of the current financial year ending June 30, 2002, they added.

Owing to falling ready business, there was no change in the official spot rates for the third session in a row.

Ready offtake was light at 2,000 bales as leading spinners kept to the sidelines. The following are some of the deals, which gone through late on Monday evening: 1,000 bales of Kandero at Rs1,650, 200 bales, Faqirwali at Rs1,550 and 200 bales of Haroonabad at Rs1625.