Cotton Prices Fell Sharply, But Clothing Prices Soared.

"Whether it's pure cotton fabric or bedding, it is not only selling less in the market, but also several times more expensive than polyester and other textured products." Li Lin, a shopping giant, recently sighed. According to the monitoring data of the provincial Price Bureau, the purchase price of cotton in our province continued to decline this year. On the one hand, cotton prices have dropped sharply. On the one hand, cotton prices have been soaring all the way. What is the matter?

Oddity: cotton prices all the way down, clothing prices doubled.

Unlike cotton prices in recent years, the purchase price of cotton has been decreasing this year. Take long staple cotton as an example. In January 2011, the price was 47800 yuan per ton, the highest price for the whole year was 50 thousand yuan per ton, but in January 2012, the price dropped to 27300 yuan, and the price dropped 42.9% last year. The price continued to decline. By June this year, the price per ton had dropped to 24300 yuan, which was 51.4% lower than the highest price of last year.

As cotton prices plummet, journalists visited some shopping malls and wholesale markets in our city and found that the price of pure cotton clothing is higher than that of previous years. "Similarly, the price of pure cotton will be 2 to 3 times higher than that of polyester and other fabrics. The price increases will have little impact on customers who buy ordinary cotton clothing, but there will be a certain impact on the sales of high-grade cotton products." Shen Shen, a shopkeeper on the first floor of a comprehensive shopping mall in Changle, Xi'an, told reporters.

The reason: the cost of textile enterprises in the market downturn is rising

"The most expensive Chinese cotton since the founding of the people's Republic of China is facing heavy encirclement of cheap cotton." Xi'an Textile Group Purchasing Department Yong minister told reporters that although the country's cotton acreage and mu yield continue to increase, "but cotton harvest, the demand has been declining." The person in charge told reporters that although the heat is at the moment, but spinning enterprises are experiencing "cold winter".

As domestic and foreign cotton spreads continue to increase and market demand is weak, the domestic competitiveness of textile enterprises has been frustrated repeatedly, and the downtime rate is increasing. "As far as our group is concerned, the current downtime rate has reached 40%, and its capacity has been continuously compressed." The official said that in July, because of the increasing difficulty of sales, the Xi'an Textile Group and most of the textile enterprises in the city adopted the strategy of reducing production and dumping inventory. The global economy continues to be weak, domestic raw material prices are rising, labor costs are rising, exports are declining and so on. Many unfavorable factors have caused heavy losses to the textile industry chain of our city and even the whole country.

Topic: behind the import quota, the domestic cotton outlet will have a big bearing on the overall situation.

The price of clothing is rising, and cotton spinning enterprises are facing many difficulties. According to the analysis of the staff of the Xi'an Sales Department of CIC, these reasons include: cotton prices have fallen sharply, leading to a significant reduction in raw materials for cotton mills in the early stage of reserves, a downturn in the downstream market, and a lack of demand at home and abroad. But the most important factor is the huge difference between domestic and foreign cotton prices.

Taking domestic and foreign cotton prices in July 27th for example, China's cotton price 328 index is 18308 yuan / ton, and the foreign cotton with the same specifications is still nearly 4000 yuan / ton lower than the index after the import is sliding. "The textile industry is now a global competition, and domestic cotton prices are more expensive than foreign countries by 4000 yuan / ton. Our cotton prices will soon catch up with the price of cotton yarn. How can we compete?" the staff member said.

Another head of Xi'an textile group said yesterday, "I went to Qingdao just now. It was the largest import port of cotton in China. I saw a lot of imported cotton piling up there, and I couldn't sell it." It seems that on the one hand, the imported cotton in the hands of traders is a mountain of mountains and nowhere to flow. On the other hand, cotton spinning enterprises are "making a big mouth" and importing cheap cotton. Among them, "import quotas" become the gap between the two.

"But domestic cotton textile enterprises must get quotas if they want to import foreign cotton." Yongjiang explained that the purpose of the cotton import quota system was to protect the domestic cotton industry, which made the domestic cotton spinning enterprises feel the pressure. He counted the accounts for journalists. The difference between domestic and foreign cotton prices is now about 4000 yuan / ton. If the enterprise can get 10 thousand tons quota, it will be equivalent to a subsidy of about 40000000 yuan. However, because the quota given by the state is limited each year, the large textile enterprises can not get the quota, let alone the local textile enterprises.

No quota can not be used for imported cotton, and domestic cotton prices remain high, leading to "the most expensive cotton in the world now" used by domestic textile enterprises. According to the insiders, in the long run, only when the interests of cotton farmers are protected, increasing the quota or abolition of the quota system is the best way to deal with them. Only by solving the way out for domestic cotton can we help cotton spinning enterprises get out of the "cold winter".