Cotton prices increase as spinners, exporters continue buying spree
KARACHI: Cotton prices rose further as aggressive buying from spinners and some exporters continued on Thursday.
However, the issue of quality is becoming serious with each passing day as smog and fog in Punjab is affecting the standing crop. Heavy moisture is making its way into cotton bolls, damaging the fibre/lint.
Many big spinners are gearing up to import cotton from US, West Africa and Central Asian countries. According to market sources, around 1.5 million bales have so far been booked by spinners.
Big spinners are preferring to import cotton even at high price as it has little issue of contamination. Presently, imported cotton costs around 76-78 US cents per lb.
Brokers said that while the issue of cotton quality is there, interestingly the volume of trading continues to rise along with prices.