The use of polyester staple fibre (PSF) has significantly increased to 30 percent this year in the wake of high consumption and low production of cotton, said textile millers, adding its use never exceeded 20 percent in the past.
They see the excessive PSF use as positive sign as the local textile industry is still far behind the developed world where 50:50 ratio is very common.
"This will certainly decrease the use of raw cotton and help stabilise the prices which abruptly hit textile industry once the production drops," said a textile miller, adding due to shortfall of cotton, the prices had gone historically high, and touched Rs 3,900 per mound in the current season, while the prices are still at Rs 3,200 per mound for fine cotton.
He said this price hike was also due to increased consumption as the textile industry spent over one billion dollars on the expansion plan, adding the increasing demand helped the cotton traders keep their prices high.
Industry sources said the textile miller adopted two-way strategies to deal with the situation, first, it increased the use of PSF and secondly, it meets the demand through import. However, despite import of 1.2 million so far, the cotton prices did not come down to previous year level, they added.
"The reason is not only the low cotton production in the country, but the whole cotton world faced shortage, which pushed American cotton prices record high to 82 cents per pound," said another textile miller, adding but this year, the situation will be different, as the United States has reported very high production in the coming season, as American cotton set the price world over.
Use of polyester staple fibre has increased in the wake of short cotton production.
Its use has reached 30 percent from earlier 25 percent. However, the ratio is still lower than the world where 50 percent use of PSF is common.
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