KARACHI, Dec 5: Cotton market on Wednesday maintained a firm trend as spinners and mills were not inclined to take even a technical breather in the wake of lower arrival figures of lint into the ginneries.

“It is too early to say something definite about the size of the crop but persistent decline of about 0.7 million bales in the arrival figures indicated the crop may far below the target”, some spinners fear.

Some of the growers might hold back their phutti stocks to sell them at higher levels at the fag-end of the season but small tillers and farmers are already out of the game after selling their phutti, they added.

“The current panic mill buying even at the higher rates reflects that spinners’ crop ideas are more realistic and they don’t want to take even a calculated risk at this stage”, some brokers claim.

Owing to conflicting reports about the size of the crop, some of the leading spinners have already placed import orders with the foreign sellers and brokers claim some consignments on their way to Karachi port.

Some ginners claim the size of the crop will be clear by the end of the current month as by that bulk of the phutti including those held back stock will find their way into the ginneries irrespective of the price prevailing at that time.

They base their view on the fact that in January or February the quality of phutti starts deteriorating because of weather conditions and turns yellow, which ginners accept at much lower prices.

According to latest phutti arrivals for the fortnight ended Dec 1, 2001, total arrivals of phutti into the ginneries amounted to 6.3 million bales, which sharply lower than the last year’s comparable figure of about 7 million bales.

Mills buying around 4.2 million bales is also on the lower side and caused sharp increase in the unsold stocks lying with the ginneries despite a active buying support extended by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP). The TCP has so far purchased about 0.225 million bales and is now in the process of selling it to foreign buyers through international tenders.

There was no change in the official spot rates, which remained pegged at the last close as there was no major change in quality premiums.

Ready offtake was relatively slow as leading spinners took stock of their inventories before resuming fresh buying. The following are some of the deals, which gone through on Wednesday: 3,00 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs2,150, 2,000 bales, Sadiqabad at Rs2,150, 500 bales, Depalpur at Rs1,930 to 1,950, 1,000 bales, Burewala at Rs1,950 to 2,000, 500 bales, Chishtian at Rs2,050, 500 bales, Haroonabad at Rs2,075, 500 bales, Mian Channu at Rs2,000, 500 bales, Sahiwal at Rs1,925, 1,000 bales, Muhammadpur Dewan at Rs2,075, 500 bales, Multan at Rs2,150 and 2,000 bales Rajanpur at Rs2,150.