Not many new sales to report although ginners feel more comfortable with the last NY sessions.
The Greek cotton market remains on a silent mode lately. The latest sales that we can report are about two weeks ago when the market was at lower levels based on Dec 07.
Apart from these sales to international merchants, some Turkish spinners bought few quantities, while Egyptian mills are still out of the market. Calculating approximately this year's production – shipments, here is where we stand at the moment:
Total production of lint cotton 06/07 crop: 310,000 tons
Total domestic consumption in 06/07 season: 80,000 tons
Balance to be exported: 230,000 tons
Already exportedor committed for export: 165,000 tons
Current stocks at the moment: 65,000 tons
Of course this data is estimated numbers coming from several sources and not yet the official numbers. Regarding current stocks (abt 65,000 tons) there is a debate on the time and extend that they will be sold.
One thing we can remind is that it is very uncommon to have serious ending stocks in Greece. As a price indication for these stocks, have in mind that ginners are asking about 57,50 c/lb FOT for the normal low 41 – good 51 HVI color.
The new crop is developing under normal weather conditions, still placing the new crop's lint cotton quantity at 350,000 tons. Some rainfalls that we had during the last 15 days were proved beneficial for cotton fields.
Lastly, referring new crop sales, ginners are still reluctant to offer at attractive levels and are rather focused on the current crop stocks.
Thrakika Ekkokistiria S.A
marketing@alchempro.com
