Extended public holiday has reduced fresh enquiries for cotton from mills

The Pakistan government on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr announced that public holiday has been extended from 17 July, 2015 to 21 July, 2015 as a result business activity has mostly ceased as the various markets will remain closed for five days. Moreover, there will also be no trucks and transportation plying on the roads to haul any cotton from the ginneries to the textile mills in various parts of the country.

The fresh business should now pick up at the middle of next week. There was mostly quiet condition on the cotton market on Thursday. The notional idea of new crop (August 2015 / July 2016) cotton seed (Phutti / Kapas) from Sindh reportedly ranged from Rs 2300 to Rs 2350 per 40 Kgs, while in the Punjab it was said to have ranged from Rs 2300 to Rs 2400 per 40 Kgs.

Over the past few days, ready cotton business has gradually declined where only a handful of needy mills bought some lint. The extra long vacation has dampened fresh enquiries from the mills.

The new crop lint prices from Sindh were said to have extended from Rs 4700 to Rs 4725 per maund (37.32 Kgs). In the Punjab, the ginned cotton prices reportedly ranged from Rs 5000 to Rs 5100 per maund, according to the quality. The cotton market was characterized by extreme quietness on Thursday.

It was reported that about 5000 bales of new cotton was being ginned daily. Trade circles added that nearly 60 ginning factories were operational by now in Sindh, while in the Punjab nearly 10 ginning factories were functional. The quality of the new crop was described to be good till now.

Yarn prices were said to have been weak over the past many months due to which the spinners have been very worried. Due to a plethora of adverse factors, the textile mills in Pakistan are going through a very rough patch. The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) is claiming they are suffering from many adverse causes and have again requested the government to remedy the situation immediately, particularly for the export sector.

APTMA wants the government to zero rate all taxes levied on exports. Furthermore, they have urged the government to provide regionally competitive electricity tariff of Rs 9 per unit for the textile industry. APTMA also desires to obtain Export Refinance and Long Term Financial Facility (LTFF) for the complete Textile Chain. In the meantime, the Pakistan textile industry continues to suffer while many units have been forced to close down voluntarily to avoid further losses.