August 14, 2007	Tuesday	Rajab 29, 1428

LAHORE, Aug 13: Spinners have booked first consignment of 2,000 tons of Uzbek cotton, which will cost them about Rs3,000 per maund (37.32kg). It is expected to arrive at the Karachi Port on August 17-18.

The vessel carrying Uzbek cotton, which was warehoused at Bandar Abbas, Iran, will sail on August 14 and arrive in Karachi in about three days, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) Chairman Shafqat Elahi told Dawn on Monday.

The spinners have decided to import cotton warehoused at various Middle Eastern and Gulf ports in view of the rising prices of domestic cotton.

The fresh domestic cotton crop is expected to be in excess of 14 million bales, but its delayed arrival in the market has created temporary shortage pushing prices to a record high of Rs3,500 per maund on last Friday.

The spinners did not open letters of credit (LCs) for importing the Central Asian cotton in order to save time to improve raw material supplies. The exporters agreed to deliver the fibre on cash against documents (CAD) basis, said Mr Elahi.

He said the international cotton exporters also wanted to offload their stocks because the New York Cotton Futures had also dropped by five cents during last few weeks.

The spinners are expected to bring an additional 2,000 tons of Uzbek cotton warehoused at the same port during the third week of August.

The domestic cotton prices are also said to have eased on Monday on the eve of Independence Day – being the national holiday.

Aptma has already announced to keep the mills closed on August 14 in order to ease the price pressure on the spinners.

The Aptma chief said the prices of domestic cotton would stabilise if the government allowed import of all varieties of cotton from India via all ports of entry, including Wahga.

The government has already allowed import of long staple cotton from India through Wahga but was reluctant to let import of other varieties from the same route fearing that it might hurt the interests of local farmers.

Aptma has also reportedly advised its members to lay off labour for 14 days as allowed under the law to ease the supply situation caused by shortage of cotton. It is not yet clear as to how many mills have decided to use this legal provision.

The All Pakistan Textile Association (Apta), which has filed an application that it should be declared the sole representative of the spinners in place of Aptma, also said its members had decided to keep their mills closed on Independence Day in order to reduce pressure on supply of cotton and polyester.

As the textile spinning mills have been facing several crisis and are close to bankruptcy we have decided to close the spinning mills on August 14. It is for the first time in the history of textile industry that spinning mills are being closed for a day.