Raw cotton prices may remain steady in the next few days mainly on steady but continued inflows in the major producing states, supported by slow buying interest from exporters and millers. Slow arrivals and slow buying marked the week, with a little bit of interest from a few exporters and a few mills. Business has been surrounded by a climate of uncertainty due to all sorts of rumors afloat, sources said.
Total cotton arrivals are placed at about 293 lakh bales by the Cotton
Corporation of India (CCI) as on April 26, as against 250.45 lakh bales by the same period last season, showing an increase of 17% over the same period last year.
The total arrivals in major zones are slated to be 45 lakh bales in the north zone, 182.50 lakh bales in the central zone, and 52 lakh bales in the south zone. Total crop for the current season is estimated to be higher around 330-335 lakh bales. USDA has recently revised its estimate of Indian crop size to 25 million bales (from 24.5 million bales each bale of 480 lb), and that converts to over 32 million Indian-sized bales.
Raw cotton prices in the domestic market remained steady during the last one month on lack of continued buying from exporters and a few leading mills amid a large crop estimate.
Spot prices of J-34, S-6, and H-4 in the Mumbai market were largely steady at Rs 5,755, Rs 6,289, and Rs 6,111 per quintal, respectively, on slow buying interest.
There have been a few concerns regarding next year?s cotton acreage in the country recently in wake of an increase in food prices, especially rice.
As far as rice is concerned, the only major cotton growing area that competes with paddy in India is in the north Indian states of Punjab and Haryana, where 1.126 million hectare were under cotton in 2007-08, which is about 11.8% of total area under cotton in India.