Weekly Report: National Bureau of Statistics Released National Cotton Yield, Nearly 60% is Xinjiang Cotton

Recently, National Bureau of Statistics published the nationwide cotton production, which was 6.161 million tons in 2014, down by 2.2% from last year; the output of Xinjiang cotton was 3.677 million tons, accounting for 59.7% of the national yield. National cotton acreage was 421.91 million hectares, down by 2.9% from last year; the cotton acreage in Xinjiang was 195.33 million hectares, up by 13.7% over previous year, which accounts for 46.3% of the national yield this year, compared with 39.5% in 2013; the actual acreage of planting areas other than Xinjiang reduced by 13.8% due to their low profit projection. The national cotton unit yield was 6.49 kg/hectare, up by 0.7% over previous year; the cotton unit yield was 8.36 kg/hectare in Xinxiang, 28.9% higher than the national average. 2015 duty implementation plan was announced, sliding duty will continue to apply to import cotton at unchanged rates, except the import under the 1% tariff quota.
Last week, the spot price decline of domestic ginned cotton narrowed. On 19th, CC Index 3128B settled at 13628 Yuan/ton, 13 Yuan down over the week. Only a few cotton companies were purchase seed cotton sporadically in Xinjiang, most of the gins began to sell their lint but at slow pace. The price of hand-picked white cotton of grade 3 at the gins was 13600-13800 Yuan/ton, and price of lint delivered to factory was about 14250 Yuan/ton, while sales was still difficult. According to the investigation of CCA Cotton Processing Industry Branch, the average buying price of Xinjiang white cotton 3128 equivalence was 4.97 Yuan/kg, down by 0.02 Yuan compared to a week earlier. The clarified inland cotton subsidy policy and improved lint sales encouraged the seed cotton market in some inland provinces, which witnessed moderate price increase.