Weekly Report: Reserve Volume Surpassed Previous Year; Domestic Market Price Upward Steadily

Last week, national seed cotton procurement price declined moderately, influenced by degraded seed cotton quality and cotton seed price. Upland grade five was included into reserve purchase target in several regions, where market responded not very active with the length requirement of 27 mm and above difficult to meet. Until now, reserve trade volume was 3.2 million ton, already more than the total reserve purchase of last season. Supported by reserve, domestic spot and futures markets continued to rise, further than international market.

Late November, cotton harvest nationwide generally finished. As seed cotton grade and quality degrading and cotton seed price declining, the procurement price decreased slightly. According to survey of CCA cotton processing industry branch, last week- 19th-23rd November, the weekly average price offered by big-bale ginners to type 328 equivalents was 8.42 Yuan per kilo, 0.06 Yuan lower over the week. Since 19th, lint of grade five was included into reserve purchase target in five regions namely, Binzhou, Dongying in Shandong province, and Cangzhou, Hengshui in Hebei province and Jingai in Tianjin. As a result, seed cotton market in Yellow River region was improved, the seed cotton of grade 4 equivalent remained stable, however, the length requirement of 27 mm and above asked by reserve purchase was difficult to meet for most cotton in those areas, then some big-bale ginners turned them down and suspended the business after several trials.

By 23rd November, cotton reserve trade volume in 2012/13 season was 3.207 million ton, surpassing the total volume of last season, among which there was 1,774,320 ton from Xinjiang cotton and 958,840 ton from Inland. Reserve transaction via key enterprises was 473,840 ton, and Xinjiang cotton took 65% in the rest, Hubei (8.7%), Shandong (8.3%) and Hebei (5.1%) were the top three of inland. At the same time, PCC reserve cotton release of last season totaled 29,140 ton.

Last week, domestic cotton spot and futures experienced moderate increase, for most high grade cotton was bought by state reserve, therefore worries for tight warehouse receipt drove ZCE cotton futures upward strongly. ZCE nearby contract CF301 settled at 19,795 Yuan per ton, 185 Yuan up over the week; the CNCE nearby contract MA1212 has average settlement price of 18,969 Yuan per ton, 62 Yuan up over the week. CC Index328 settled at 18,848 Yuan per ton, 60 Yuan up over the week.

At the same time, FC Index settled at 84.31 USD/Ib. which was 13,570 Yuan per ton under 1% tariff, 5,278 Yuan lower than domestic equivalent; and 14,510 Yuan per ton under sliding duties, which was 4,338 Yuan lower than domestic equivalent.