LAHORE, Nov 1: Textile spinners on Thursday decided to restrain their purchase of domestic cotton for next four days and escalate imports in a bid to stabilise the market that has seen the prices of the fibre rise to Rs3,225 to Rs3,250 per maund (37.5kg) after a downward revision of the official estimates for the current crop size.

The decision was taken by the spinners at a meeting of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) with its chairman Shafqat Elahi in the chair. The meeting was called to take review cotton supply and demand situation.

The government has recently revised down the expected output of the cotton crop to 12.8 million bales against the target of 14.1 million bales, which engendered fears that the production this year could be as low as 10 million bales triggering a price hike in the market.

“The crop size is estimated to be lower than the target for the year, but it is in line with the average production during the last several years,” Mr Elahi told Dawn after the meeting.

He said the industry had been meeting its 15-20 per cent consumption requirements through imports.

Last year the industry had imported three million bales of cotton. He said the industry felt that it was unviable to operate with local prices around and above Rs3,200 per maund. On the other hand, he said, even Indian cotton, imported by sea, would not cost more than Rs31,00 per maund.

Mr Elahi said the real issue facing the industry was unavailability of raw materials, including polyester staple fibre (PSF), and not the lower than target cotton output. He demanded that the government must allow the industry to import PSF from India via Wagha.

“Since there is no reason for panic on account of domestic cotton crop output and Aptma members would go about their purchases in a rationale manner both from local and imported sources,” the Aptma chairman said.