US cotton sales should slow with the amount of fiber available from producers seen declining, when a government report is released on Thursday, brokers said Wednesday.
Combined US net upland cotton sales were forecast in a range from 100,000 to 200,000 running bales (RBs, 500-lbs each), versus total sales last week of 431,500 RBs. One analyst feels sales will reach 250,000 RBs.
The USDA report is due out at 8:30 am EDT (1230 GMT) on Thursday.
"I think we'll see one more week of good sales and then it should start tapering off since there would be very little cotton available and we've oversold the crop," a broker in the US south-east said.
Analysts said US cotton shipments are expected to remain strong, running between 350,000 and 400,000 RBs. One believes shipments could reach as high as 450,000 RBs. Last week, shipments surged to a marketing year peak of 441,400 RBs.
Indeed, US exporters are on track to hit the USDA target of 13.8 million (480-lb) bales in exports for 2003/04, the analysts added.
Traders said the focus of the sales data will again be on China, whose heavy purchases last October powered cotton prices to their highest level since late 1995.
According to USDA figures, China has already bought 4.58 million RBs of cotton so far in the 2003/04 marketing year (August/July), well up from the 1.68 million it had purchased by this time last year.
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