ISLAMABAD: Pakistani traders have inked fresh contracts on new rates to import cotton from India, after Indian exporters delivered little under previous deals on lower prices, Pakistani industry officials said on Wednesday.
Textile firms in the world’s third-largest cotton consumer have banked on neighbouring India to meet demand after massive summer floods damage to the domestic crop caused an estimated shortfall of approximately four million tonnes.
Pakistan’s textile industry accounts for about 60 percent of the country’s total exports. “Traders have signed new contracts between $1.33 and $1.50 per pound and about 60,000 bales have already arrived,” Naseem Usman, chairman of the Karachi-based Cotton Brokers Forum, told Reuters. “Very little has come from the previous contracts signed earlier, after a slight upward adjustment between the parties.”
Traders had booked around one million bales in the August-September period for delivery from October to January from India, the world’s second largest producer, industry officials said. However, Pakistani traders said in October that majority of Indian dealers informed of the inability to meet commitments as they had not been able to register for cotton exports in time.
India suspended the online process of registering cotton exports in early October after receiving applications equal to the stipulated exportable surplus of 5.5 million cotton bales. Most Pakistani dealers confirmed that Indian exporters used registration suspensions as an “excuse” to escape their contracts due to a hike in international cotton prices in recent months.
“We have received less than 10 percent from nearly one million bales contracted from India earlier on lower prices,” Vice Chairman of private All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Yasin Siddik, said. “But new contracts are being signed with Indian dealers on new rates and that cotton is coming,” he added.
India had allowed exports of 5.5 million bales from November 1, but asked exporters to ship the stipulated quantity before December 15.
