MULTAN, Nov 4: Cotton arrivals at 959 ginneries by November 1, 2004 showed an increase of 51.09 per cent over the same period last year.

According to the latest arrivals report released by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association on Thursday, about 6.25 million bales of cotton arrived at the ginneries against last year's figure of 4.14m bales.

Of the total bales arrived so far, 4.82m bales came from Punjab against its share of 3.25m bales the same period last year, while 1.43m bales came from Sindh against 0.88m bales of the corresponding period last year.

As much as 5.04m bales have been ginned. Of the ginned bales, the textile sector has so far procured 4.35m bales, which are 1.5m more than the same period last year.

Similarly, the Trading Corporation of Pakistan has procured 139,300 bales, while exporters have lifted 145,189 bales. Therefore, some 409,418 bales have been lying unsold with the ginneries as against the unsold stock of 445,717 bales during the same period.

A spokesman of PCGA told APP that at present phutti rates ranged from Rs925 to Rs930 per 40 kg, and that of lint stood at Rs1,950 to Rs1,975 per maund.