April 5, 2006	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 6, 1427

KARACHI, April 4: The cotton arrivals reached 12.371 million bales on April 1, but still lower by 13.73 per cent over last year’s 14.339 million bales, says a fortnightly report of Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) here Tuesday. Of the total production, textile mills purchased 11.112 million bales from the ginners, while the private sector exporters bought 74,400 bales, but the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) remained inactive.

PCGA said that the total unsold stocks at the ginneries had reduced to 1.184 million bales on April 1.

Sindh produced about 2.545 million bales, showing a fall of 16.53 per cent over the previous year, while arrivals from Punjab were down by 12.97 per cent to 9.826 million bales.

Sindh had produced more than 3.049 million bales during the same period last year, while the Punjab reaped over 11.290 million bales.

A total of 73 ginning factories operated in the country during the period under review, of which 70 were functioning in the Punjab, while three in Sindh.—APP