KARACHI: Cotton prices remained under pressure owing to slow demand from textile spinners on Saturday. Shortage of quality lint is a major factor behind sluggish activity.

Even though ginners are holding substantial ­quantity of cotton, textile millers are reluctant to enter into deals because of lint quality constraints, brokers said.

“The situation is highly precarious. The cotton crop size would not be more than 8.5 million bales and yet millers are not ready to enter into big deals,” said cotton analyst Naseem Usman.

According to estimates, textile spinners have purchased around 6m bales from local market. Ginners are still holding huge unsold stocks of around 1.4m bales while another 1.2m bales are expected to arrive during the remaining part of the season.

Falling cotton prices on ready counter also forced official spot rates to be slashed by Rs200 to Rs8,800 per maund during the week.

The world leading cotton markets gave mixed trend. New York cotton recovered partially while Chinese and Indian markets were under pressure.

The following deals were reported to have transpired on ready counter: 1,000 bales, station Ghotki, at Rs8,900-9,200; 1,000 bales, Khairpur, at Rs7,950-8,500; 1,400 bales, Rahim Yar Khan, at Rs9,000; 3,000 bales, Khanpur, at Rs8,900-9,000; 1,400 bales, Haroonabad, at Rs8,000-9,000 (conditional); and 400 bales, Mianwali, at Rs8,800 (conditional).

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2019