July 5, 2003	Saturday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 4,1424

KARACHI, July 4: Physical trading on the cotton market on Friday remained relatively slow as spinners lent guarded support to the new crop lots from the lower Sindh ginneries amid reports of falling micronaire.

However, needy mills were not inclined to follow the lead of their senior partners most of them having comfortable stock positions and lifted stray lots of both the new and the old crop.

Some cotton analysts including cotton consultant Naseem Usman attributed the continuous absence of spinners and mills from the market to terribly lower micronaire (Mic) of the crop for reasons not immediately known.

According to them the mic of the new crop has dropped to an alarming low level of 3.5 per cent, which could have a negative bearing on the fibre strength of the export products.

“The average normal mic of the new crop should be around 5 per cent and it is far below our requirements for the export stuff,” spinners say adding “we are staying out of the market awaiting in an improvement of the Mic after picking operations of phutti get further momentum.”

Cotton experts failed to give any specific reason for the low-mic but some other claim it could be the outcome of extremely hot weather or defective seeds of the new crop.

They said spinners may not resume normal covering operations for the new crop until the mic situation improves to the universally accepted standard of 3.5 to 4.9 per cent during the coming weeks.

According to them about 7,000 bales of the new crop are lying in the ginneries of the lower Sindh and central Punjab as spinners are not inclined to make bigger commitments.

Meanwhile, members of the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA), met in the central Sindh ginnery to sort out the issue of conversion charges for the current season. The general opinion was that it should be around Rs300 per bale as compared to last season’s Rs180.

Official spot rates were held unchanged for the fourth consecutive session at Rs2,400 per maund in the absence of ready business.

New York cotton futures on the other hand posted a fresh modest rise of 0.15 and 0.34 cents per lb at 58.40 and 60.22 cents per lb for both the maturing July and the new crop October settlements respectively.

Ready business was light as till late in the evening 400 bales of new crop Sultanabad was sold at Rs2,325 per maund.