NEW YORK, Aug 24: NY cotton futures settled mixed on Friday in action featuring locals and small speculators, with most of the trade keeping a wary eye on a nascent dispute over the level of Chinese cotton imports.

December cotton eased 0.22 cent to end at 45.25 cents a lb, trading 45-46.38 cents. March rose 0.03 cent to 47.38 cents. Except for one contract, the rest were flat to 0.15 cent easier.

We had recovery yesterday but (just) couldn’t stay up today, said Keith Brown, president of commodity trading firm Keith Brown and Co. in Moultrie, Georgia.

Floor sources and brokers said futures ran into speculative pressure at the start of business but scale-down trade buying provided a solid floor for fiber futures.

Mike Stevens of Swiss Financial Services in Mandeville, Louisiana, said overnight cotton business has been excellent the last two nights.

It put a rock solid floor on the market between 45 and 44 cents (basis December), he said.

Chartists believe resistance in December cotton will be at 46 and 47 cents while nearby support is seen at 45 and 44.90 cents.

Estimated final volume reached 4,100 lots, against the previous count of 8,123 lots.

Open interest in the cotton market fell 1,542 lots to 70,729 lots as of Aug 22.

Of more immediate attention to the trade would be complaints by US cotton shippers that the Chinese government is said to be hindering cotton imports by raising technical quality barriers in violation of commitments Beijing made when it joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) last year.

Trade sources said the complaints were forwarded by the American Cotton Shippers Association, Calcot Ltd., the National Cotton Council of America and Cotton Council International during a recent meeting with J.B. Penn, the undersecretary of agriculture for farm and foreign agricultural services.

This is going to be a big issue in the coming weeks because a lot of people here feel the Chinese are reneging on their obligations, a cotton broker in the US Southeast said.

USDA, in its monthly August production report, forecast Chinese cotton production in 2002/03 at 20.5 million (480-lb) bales, consumption at 26.25 million bales and imports at 2.0 million bales.—Reuters