Weekly Report: Cotton Price Declined both Home and Abroad, Rotation of Cotton Reserve is Suspended Again

1. Domestic and Foreign Cotton Prices Fell Sharply

With the rapid spread of the international epidemic, the decline in cotton prices has accelerated to the lowest level since April 2016. As of March 20, China Cotton Price Index (CCIndex3128B) closed at 11,825 Yuan/ton, down 15.5% from 13,996 Yuan/ton on January 14. The average price last week was 12,198 Yuan/ton, down 472 Yuan from the previous month. Zhengzhou Cotton Futures fell the limit for many times, the main contract CF005 weekly average price of 11386 Yuan/ton, down 808 Yuan month-on-month, the lowest to 10885 Yuan/ton, down 24.7% from the peak of 14450 Yuan/ton on January 14. The price of Cotlook was 64.95 cents/lb on March 20, down 19% from 80.2 cents/lb on January 14. The average price was 67.54 cents/lb last week, down 3.29 cents month-on-month. ICE cotton futures main contract as low as 53.2 cents/lb, down 26.1% from its peak of 71.96 cents/lb on Jan. 13. The weekly average was 56.39 cents/lb, down 4.48 cents from the previous month.

2. The Rotate-In of Reserve Cotton Has Risen Sharply

Last week, the price difference between domestic and foreign cotton exceeded 800 Yuan/ton for three consecutive working days. In the 16th week (March 16-20), 78,000 tons of cotton was put into reserve, with a total turnover of 60,800 tons and a turnover rate of 78%, 33.31 percentage points higher than that of last week. Up to March 20, the accumulative amount of cotton rotate turnover 288,800 tons, the turnover rate of 42.04%, the highest transaction price of 14,197 yuan/ton, the lowest transaction price of 12071 Yuan/ton. According to the formula of the maximum bidding price of the central reserve cotton wheel in the notice (No. 3 of 2019) issued by the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration and the Ministry of Finance, the maximum bidding price of Xinjiang cotton rotate in the 17th week of 2019 (from March 23 to March 27) is 12,450 Yuan/ton (standard grade 3128B price), down 451 Yuan/ton from the previous week.