North Xinjiang: Procurement of seed cotton comes to an end, the transportation of lint cotton is in heavy pressure

It is learnt, the procurement work of seed cotton in Shihezi, Kuitun and Wusu etc in North Xinjiang has basically come to an end at present, only a few cotton merchants have still insisted on procurement, since the daily procurement volume has slid down greatly, the 400 type equipment has been started up for a short period and then stopped, such kind of situation has appeared frequently, so the consumption is too large, a part of cotton merchants plan to accept the work and process the cotton with 200 type equipment, the small bale cotton are mainly supplied to the local cotton textile mills in Xinjiang. A few large cotton merchants have estimated that the lint cotton processing work in the cotton area in north Xinjiang will be finished around last ten days of January.

Since December, the quotation of spot foreign cotton have risen greatly continuously, grade-SM and grade-M foreign cotton has a net weight quotation at ports has reached 30,500-32,000 yuan per ton once, many textile mills have turned to procure domestic cotton. Since the local produced cotton is mainly grade-4 and grade-5, the hinterland cotton textile mills and circulation enterprises have increased, especially some plants which have spun high count yarn and combed yarn, whose demand has been recovered obviously, but impacted by some factors that the loading is difficult and fund is tight as well as textile operation prospect is not clear etc, the off-take on the lint cotton market in north Xinjiang is still not ideal.

It is learnt, since mid-December, the lint cotton transportation pressure on the platforms of Urumqi, Shihezi and Kuitun etc have risen obviously, the difficulty for putting the lint cotton into warehouses on the second class platforms such as Kuitun, Wusu and Shawan etc have enlarged continuously. The insiders have analyzed, the reasons are: firstly, the pressure for transportation around Spring Festival began to appear, the number of vacant wagons have reduced; secondly, since a part of enterprises in south Xinjiang have used automobiles to transport lint cotton to the platforms in Urumqi, Shihezi and Changji etc and then transport concentratedly though railway, which have intensified the tight status of north Xinjiang; thirdly, after entering into mid-December, the sales price of lint cotton in the hinterland has risen, the enthusiasm of PCC and the autonomous region for transferring the lint cotton to the warehouses in the hinterland has increased gradually. The personnel for deliver cotton in a part of hinterland enterprises which have stationed in Xinjiang have expressed that such kind of situation is difficult to be changed before Spring Festival.

It is also reflected by relative enterprises, the taking delivery quotations of grade-2 and grade-3 cotton from the platform at the north station of Urumqi on 26th are respectively 28,200-28,500 yuan per ton and 27,600-28,000 yuan per ton (metric weight), but the taking delivery quotation of grade-4 cotton on the platform is only at 26,000-26,500 yuan per ton, there is over 1,000 yuan per ton price gap from grade-3 cotton. On 25th and 26th, the quotation of grade-2 cotton in Wusu and Kuitun in the warehouses of Hubei and Shandong etc have been raised for 28,800-29,200 yuan per ton (processed by local cotton merchants, public settlement and taking delivery), the quotation of T329 cotton is at around 28,500 yuan per ton.