Cotton prices fell sharply

“Whether it is a pure cotton texture clothing or bedding, the market is not only selling less, and the price is several times more expensive than polyester and other texture products...” Ms. Li Lin, a shopping expert, recently sighed, and according to provincial prices Bureau monitoring data show that the purchase price of cotton in our province continues to decline this year. On the one hand, the price of cotton has fallen sharply. On the one hand, the price of cotton products has been soaring. Is this what is going on?

Weixiang: The price of cotton has fallen all the way. The doubled price of clothing is different from the price increase of cotton in previous years. Since the beginning of this year, the national cotton purchase price has continued to decline. Taking long-staple cotton as an example, the price in January 2011 was 47,800 yuan per ton, and the annual maximum price was 50,000 yuan per ton; and by January 2012, the price had dropped to 27,300 yuan, and the price was down by 42.9% year-on-year. The price has continued to decline, and the price per ton has dropped to 24,300 yuan in June this year, a drop of 51.4% from the highest price of last year, a drop of more than half.

While the price of cotton dropped all the way, the reporter visited some shopping malls and wholesale markets in the city and found that indeed, as Li Yue said, the price of cotton clothing is higher than that of previous years. "The same type of clothing, the purchase price of cotton is 2 to 3 times higher than polyester and other fabrics, the price rise has little effect on the purchase of ordinary cotton clothing customers, but the sales of high-grade cotton products do have a certain Impact.” A shopkeeper surnamed Shen told reporters on the first floor of the Xi’an Changle General Store.

Reason: The market downturn The cost of textile companies has risen. “Covering at the highest-priced Chinese cotton since the founding of the People’s Republic of China was faced with the heavy burden of international cheap cotton.” Minister of Commerce of Xi’an Textile Group Purchasing Minister told reporters that although the country’s cotton cultivation area and output per mu are increasing , "But the cotton harvest, the demand has continued to decline ... ..." The person in charge told reporters that although now is the heat, but the textile companies are experiencing "winter."

Due to the continuous increase in the spread of cotton prices at home and abroad and the weak market demand, the international competitiveness of domestic textile companies has repeatedly suffered setbacks and the rate of downtime has continued to increase. “For our group, the current shutdown rate has reached 40%, and the capacity has been continuously compressed.” The person in charge said that in July, Xi'an Textile Group, like most textile enterprises in the city The strategy of reducing production stoppages and dumping inventory. The unfavorable factors such as the continued weakness of the global economy, rising domestic raw material prices, rising labor costs, and declining export volumes have caused heavy damage to the textile industry chain in our city and throughout the country.

Breaking the question: The quota of homemade cotton behind domestic import quotas has pushed up the overall market price of garments, but cotton textile companies are faced with the predicament that should be said to be caused by multiple factors. According to the analysis of the staff of Xi'an Business Department of Xi'an Finance, these reasons include: The sharp drop in cotton prices led to a substantial impairment of the raw material reserves of the cotton spinning enterprises in the early stage; the downstream market was sluggish, and the domestic and international demand was not high. However, the most important factor is the huge difference in domestic and foreign cotton prices.

Taking July 27 domestic and foreign cotton prices as an example, the Chinese cotton price 328 index was 18,308 yuan per ton. After foreign countries of the same specification, after accepting the import sliding tariff, it is still nearly 4,000 yuan less than the index. "The textile industry is now globally competitive. Domestic cotton prices are 4,000 yuan more per ton than foreign countries. Our cotton prices are about to catch up with people's cotton yarn prices. How can we compete?" said the staff member.

Another person in charge of the Xi'an Textile Group said yesterday: “I have just gone to Qingdao a few days ago. It is the largest import port of cotton in the country. I see a lot of imported cotton piled up there and I can't sell it...” It seems that on the one hand, the imported cotton in the hands of traders is full of mountains and there is nowhere to go. On the other side, the cotton spinning enterprises “look at the ocean and sigh” to import cotton at low prices. Among them, the “import quota” has become a gap separating the two.

“But the domestic cotton spinning companies must get quotas if they want to import foreign cotton.” The minister explained that the cotton import quota system is aimed at protecting the domestic cotton industry. This system puts pressure on domestic cotton spinning companies. He calculated an account for the reporter, domestic and foreign cotton prices are now around 4,000 yuan / ton, if companies can get 10,000 tons quota, it is equivalent to get more than 40 million subsidies. However, because of the limited quotas granted by the country each year, large textile companies still do not get quotas, let alone local local textile enterprises.

There is no quota to use imported cotton, and domestic cotton prices remain high, resulting in "the cotton used by domestic textile companies is the world's most expensive." According to people in the industry, in the long run, the only way to protect the interests of cotton farmers is to increase quotas or abolish the quota system. It is only by solving the problem of domestic cotton that it can help cotton spinning enterprises to get out of the "winter."