KARACHI: The local cotton market on Friday remained stable but volume of business came down owing to unprecedented increase in the phutti rates.

The Spot Rate remained unchanged at Rs 15900 per maund. The polyester fiber was available at Rs 247 per kg.

Cotton Analyst Naseem Usman told that the rate of cotton in Sindh remained between Rs 12500 to Rs 16,000 per maund and the rate of cotton in Punjab was registered at Rs 14,700 to Rs 16,300 per maund.

The rate of the new crop of Phutti in Sindh was remained between Rs 4,500 to Rs 6,500 per 40 kg. While Phutti prices in Punjab were between Rs 5,500 to Rs 7,400 per 40 kg.

Similarly, prices of cotton in Balochistan were remained at Rs 13,800 to 16,200 per maund while Phutti prices were high as compared to other two provinces which were Rs 6,200 to 82,00 per maund, said Naseem Usman.

The rate of Banola in Sindh was between Rs 1400 to Rs 2,000 per maund. While in Punjab rates of Banola were between Rs 1600 to Rs 2,100 per maund.

2000 bales of Khair Pur were sold at Rs 15000 to Rs 15400 per maund, 2000 bales of Rahim Yar Khan, 400 bales of Sadiqabad, 600 bales of Khan Pur were sold at Rs 16000 per maund and 200 bales of Lodhran were sold at Rs 15500 per maund.

ICE cotton futures were down more than 2% on Thursday, pressured by a stronger dollar and a weekly report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that showed a drop in exports of the natural fiber.

The cotton contract for December fell 2.31 cents, or 1.9%, at 116.51 cents per lb by 12:33 p.m. EDT (1633 GMT), after falling as much as 2.1% earlier.

Total futures market volume fell by 18,556 to 28,099 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 722 to 284,209 contracts in the previous session.

Pakistan's cotton production soared 81% to 6.25 million bales in the current season (June-November 2021) in wake of timely rains in the crop fields. The significant increase in output is aiding the textile industry to slash the imports of the input to meet the local demand and saving precious foreign exchange. The country produced 3.45 million bales in the same period last year (June-November 2020), Pakistan Cotton Ginners' Association (PCGA) reported on Wednesday.

The association reports average weight of one bale at 155kg. "Timely rains in September helped lift cotton output this year," PCGA former chairman Jassu Mal Leemani said "Last year, untimely rains in August had damaged almost 2 million bales alone in Sindh," he said. "Accordingly, the country ended up reporting total cotton production at multi decade low level of 5.64 million bales in the previous season 2020-21."

The historic low production in previous fiscal year encouraged the textile industry (yarn manufacturers) to import 857,373 tons of cotton yarn worth $1.48 billion, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

Pakistan's total consumption of cotton amounted to over 16 million bales per annum from 2015 to 2019. The demand dropped to 14.7 million bales in the previous year (2019-20) amid Covid-19 pandemic

Textile industry remains the single largest exporting segment of the country as its share in total export earnings stands at 60%.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021