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Our Bureau

Coimbatore , Nov. 7

EVEN as the arrivals of new cotton crop are picking up, the short supply of extra long staple (ELS) cotton appears pronounced this year as feared by the textile industry. The shortage is marked by the flare up in its price this month, said the cotton industry here.

The price of ELS has gone up in the last three months by 30 per cent, and it is being quoted at Rs 33,500 a candy (355.62 kg) for the 35-36 mm fibre length, said Mr K.N. Viswanathan, Secretary of the South India Cotton Association (SICA) here.

The trade here anticipate, according to Mr Viswanathan, a demand gap of some four to five lakh bales for ELS cotton. As against the projected consumption of around 16-17 bales, ELS cotton output this year is pegged at around 12 lakh bales.

While DCH-32, the much sought after ELS cotton by the domestic spinners, is quoted at Rs 33,000-33,500, the other ELS variety MCU-5 with a fibre length of 34 mm is being quoted at over Rs 29,000 for spot delivery. India along with China, the US and Italy are the predominant users of ELS cotton varieties, and are preferred by the spinners for production of 80s-100s count yarn essentially going into production of finer fabric manufacture.

Mr Viswanathan said with the widespread rains in southern and western cotton producing States, the arrivals of new crop had run into a delay for about a month. This has helped cotton prices to stabilise in the current season so far. "We expect that the market would see a further higher quantum of crop arrivals, say one lakh bales plus per day, by this month end," the SICA Secretary said. He added that part of the reasons for the raw cotton prices firming up in the last few days was on account of local purchases of cotton resorted to by the mills in Punjab and the trade there covering sizeable quantity for exports.

The trade here has projected that the volume of cotton export would touch some 20 lakh bales. Cotton exporters are said to have covered already some six lakh bales meant for export this season.

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