KARACHI, Jan 8: Cotton prices on Tuesday hit 15-year peak level of Rs3,400 per maund followed by panic buying by mills and spinners owing to pressure on the floating stock as some of the leading ginners held back their unsold stocks.

But spinners said refusal of Indian exporters to honour their export commitments because of sudden price flare-up on the world markets was the chief reason behind the panic buying.

Forward import contracts for about 1.3m bales of short staple lint were signed with the Indian suppliers but their refusal to make shipments against these contracts had created crisis-like conditions in the local textile sector leading to price flare-up.After several lean years, a record business of around 100,000 bales in a single session was reported in the ready section on Tuesday as spinners and mills were said to be after each lot irrespective of the price tag, floor brokers said.

“The crop size of below 10m bales could tilt price balance into the favour of ginners who still hold large unsold stock of about 2m bales, but the growers are out of the game as they have already dumped their phutti into the ginneries,” they added. An idea of panic mill buying may well be had from the fact that some of the fine lots were traded as higher as Rs3,400 per maund. About 15 years back lint prices touched Rs3,650 per maund level owing to terribly short crop below 10m bales, cotton analyst Naseem Usman recalled.

Official spot rates were marked up by Rs50 per maund at Rs3,200 per maund but in the ready section fine lots were traded at much higher rates.

New York cotton futures also modestly rose by 0.26 and 0.27 cents per lb at 68.95 and 70.63 for both the ruling March and the distant May contracts, respectively.

Mill off-take was on the higher side totalling well over 100,000 bales as under:

PUNJAB VARIETY: 40,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan, 12,000 bales, Khanpur and 8,000 bales, Liaquatpur at Rs3,350 to Rs3,400, 5,000 bales, Ahmedpur East at Rs3,200 to Rs3,400, 3,000 bales, Khanewal at Rs3,250 to Rs3,550, 4,000 bales, Lodhran and 4,000 bales, Jalalpur at Rs3,300 to Rs3,400, 2,000 bales, Rajanpur at Rs3,300 and 2,000 bales, Sadiqabad at Rs3,350 to Rs3,400.