Pakistan'S Cotton Import Potential Is Huge.

In December, the British Cotlook company (Caunt Luke) launched a special issue entitled "tap the potential of Pakistan's cotton textile industry".

Despite the economic problems in some parts of the world, the demand for textile products and the devaluation of currencies in the international market (a depreciation of 37% in the past two and a half years) has promoted Pakistan's clothing exports.

Pakistan's textile exports in September 2010 are expected to break through the 2008 record.

Such rapid growth is closely followed by India and Bangladesh.

Therefore, in the foreseeable future, Pakistan's textile and clothing exports will continue to maintain rapid growth.

In the past 10 years, due to attracting a lot of investment, Pakistan's textile industry has expanded rapidly and upgraded to become one of the most efficient textile producing areas in the world.

These new investments have also promoted market demand for textiles and high-grade cotton.

At the same time, despite the improvement in the quality of Pakistan's cotton, its demand for high-grade, white, medium length, ordinary machine and imported cotton with low impurity content has increased significantly.

Cotton imports in Pakistan were as high as 797 thousand tons in 2007/08, but fell to 452 thousand tons in 2008/09 and 337 thousand tons in 2009/10.

It is mainly due to the flood disaster in early this year that led to the reduction of domestic cotton production. In the first two months of 2010/11, Pakistan's cotton imports had reached 46323 tons, and Pakistan is expected to import 510 thousand tons of cotton this year.

In addition, the peak period of cotton exports in Pakistan is the beginning and the middle of each year. The actual export situation of this year will also affect the quantity and grade of the final imported cotton.

10 years ago, Pakistan mainly imported Bandar Abbas from Central Asia, but now imports are very rich.

Because textile factories in Pakistan mainly produce home textile products, the strength and length of fibers are more concerned when purchasing cotton.

As Brazil cotton grades are mostly M/SLM, the length is 1.1/8, the color is white, the contents are low, and it can buy forward contracts within two years. Therefore, Brazil cotton is often the first choice of Pakistan textile mill. It imports about 100 thousand tons of Brazil cotton every year.

With the approaching of the picking and export shipment period of Brazil cotton, the initial contracts have gradually started to determine the basis and begin to arrange shipment from the origin.

Two years ago, cotton production in Brazil declined and market share was handed over to US cotton, especially in the production of coarse yarn market.

American cotton and Brazil cotton are very similar in many quality indicators. Compared with domestic cotton in Pakistan, they can enhance the competitiveness of textile factories in the international market.

In addition, although Pakistan textile mills always want to buy the cheapest cotton, there are also many SM grade cotton imported from Greece, West Africa and Australia.

On the whole, Pakistan's cotton imports basically cover most of the major cotton producing countries: Central Asia, the United States, India, West Africa, Brazil, Australia, Egypt, Sultan, and even China.

Textile mills have been able to find solutions to various technical problems, such as selecting the most suitable and most economical cotton for blending, and so on.

Interestingly, in the past 2-3 years, the cotton length index of Pakistan has decreased due to planting illegal pgenic cotton varieties.

We heard that many cotton mills could not produce 30s yarn from domestic cotton, so imported compact spinning technology from China, and the price was only half that imported from Europe or Japan.

Using compact spinning technology, the yarn strength is better when producing the same count of cotton yarn. If the cotton yarn with lower count is produced, the output will increase significantly.

Before the further expansion of compact spinning, the cotton imported from Pakistan cotton mill mainly produces cotton yarn of 30s or above.

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Pakistan is also a major consumer of long staple cotton in the world, and imports of long staple cotton account for 15% of its total imports.

Mainly imported from Egypt and the United States Pima, the recent imports of India DCH and MCU-5 seized some markets of Egyptian cotton and American Pima cotton, while the market share of Central Asia long staple cotton also decreased.

In addition, the factory used to use Pima cotton to produce more than 60s cotton yarn. But with the introduction of compact spinning technology, in order to enhance the competitiveness of the market, the factory can produce 60s yarn with the length of SJV Acala or more than 38 of Egypt, 86 of Brazil, and the market share of Pima cotton.

The increase in cotton production in neighbouring India and the relatively stable political relations between the two countries have promoted the import of India cotton. India has become the third largest source country of imported cotton in Pakistan.

Compared with other countries, India cotton has a special advantage: entry through Wagah can greatly reduce pportation costs, India cotton quality indicators are very similar to Pakistan cotton, India cotton prices are competitive, and so on.

In the past 2-3 years, the market share of India cotton has increased rapidly in Pakistan, and gradually gained credibility. However, the India government's ban on cotton exports not only cut off the supply of cotton to Pakistan, but also greatly hurt the interests of Pakistan mills.

The factory had to find other cotton from the market at a higher price to make up for the stock demand after June 2010.

Obviously, it is doubtful whether the new cotton contract signed in India this year and 2011 will be able to perform under the sharp rise in international prices.

We hope that the export ban in India will eventually be abolished, and the demand in Pakistan and surrounding areas can be met.

Importing India cotton requires only 2-3 days' truck journey. Such a short turnover is really amazing.

Although India's cotton export policy has been changing frequently, it has led to problems in the performance of some orders, causing Pakistan cotton mills to suffer, but the mills must also strive to maintain their credibility in the international community.

The sacredness of contracts lies in the strict implementation of contracts, not just in black and white.

Recently, some buyers who have signed a long-term cotton contract will decide whether to open a letter of credit or cancel the contract with the seller according to their domestic cotton supply.

For international cotton traders, they have already undertaken 12 months' market risk and margin pressure. Buyers' breach of contract will bring pressure to the supply chain.

Pakistan has always been very good at protecting its investment, improving production efficiency and enhancing cost advantages. However, in recent years, due to tight cotton resources and market volatility, cotton mills need to rely more on their business relationship to purchase suitable cotton at competitive prices.

I believe that Pakistan's cotton industry will have a bright future, whether cotton growers, cotton mills or textile manufacturers.

In the next 2-3 years, the further promotion of pgenic seeds will increase the yield and total yield of cotton in Pakistan.

Just like India, a large amount of investment attracted by the value added Department of textile industry will further promote the development of the spinning industry.

Because of the low price and large profit margins of Pakistan's low spun yarns, China's imports are very active, which has also pushed many mills to increase investment.

If this trend continues, cotton consumption in Pakistan will grow by 5-10%, and imports will increase by 1 million bales.

With the development of cotton technology in Brazil, Australia and the United States, when cotton prices are appropriate, the Pakistan cotton mill will import more cotton varieties to enhance the competitiveness of its products and ensure its increasing impact in the international market.