KARACHI: Cotton trading remained brisk on Saturday amid fears of shortage of quality cotton after an indirect ban on Indian imports which meet up to 2.5 million bales of the local industry annually.
Trading resumed on a firm note with buyers focusing their activity around quality cotton whose availability was becoming difficult with each passing day. There are strong indications that the quality cotton would only be available up to the first picking or by end of this month, brokers said.
The cotton price also remained higher, though no fresh gains were noted as spinners are cautious not to allow cotton rates to rise beyond certain level, brokers added.
However, the unofficial ban imposed on cotton imports from India caused panic among spinners who rushed to build up their stocks to meet their maximum raw material needs from domestic source, they added.
There are reports that the plant protection department has stopped issuing new no-objection certificates to cotton imports from India though market sources said that around 200,000 bales have been booked so far by some spinners.