KARACHI, Nov 18: Cotton arrivals gained momentum but were still short by 16.55 per cent to 6.801 million bales till November 15, over the same period last year, said a fortnightly report of the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) here on Friday.

Last year, 8.151 million bales had arrived at ginning factories till November 15, of which 6.353 million bales came from Punjab and 1.797m bales from Sindh.

A ginner-cum-cotton trader said late picking coupled with crop shortage were the reasons for lower arrivals at the ginning factories.

This year, textile mills have purchased 4.233 million bales from ginners and private sector exporters bought 50,200 bales, while the Trading Corporation of Pakistan remained inactive.

The PCGA said the total unsold stock at the ginneries had been estimated at 2.517 million bales as on November 15, 2005.

Sindh produced about 1.706 million bales, showing a fall of 5.09 per cent over the previous year, while arrivals from Punjab were down by 19.79 per cent to 5.096 million bales.

A total of 1,044 ginning factories operated in the country during the period under review, of which 841 were functioning in Punjab and 203 in Sindh.—APP