US upland cotton sales should stay firm due to steady demand from a variety of customers when the weekly USDA export sales report is released tomorrow, analysts said on Wednesday.
They said combined US upland cotton sales will likely range from 200,000 to 300,000 running bales (RBs, 500-lbs each), versus total sales last week of 259,600 RBs.
Shipments are seen hitting 300,000 to 400,000 RBs, versus 367,500 RBs last week, with some forecasting an even higher figure due to a marketing subsidy administered by the government for exporters of US cotton.
"We should see both pretty good sales and shipments," a broker in the US Southeast said.
Analysts said the current pace of US cotton sales and shipments should allow US producers and exporters to easily hit the USDA projection of US cotton exports in the 2003/04 marketing year (August/July) of 13.8 million (480-lb) bales.