Pakistan will see a short season this year (August 2016 / July 2017) and therefore ready cotton supply would diminish over the coming several weeks. Therefore Pakistan could possibly produce only about 10.08 million bales of pressed cotton (155 Kgs) due to a shorter season.
Seedcotton (Kapas/Phutti) prices rose in Sindh this week and therefore the prices registered a rise of Rs 50 per 40 Kgs. Similarly, in Punjab the seedcotton prices rose by Rs 50 per 40 kilogrammes.
In Sindh, the seedcotton prices are said to have ranged from Rs 3100 to Rs 3350 per 40 Kgs, while in Punjab they reportedly extended from Rs 3100 to Rs 3575 per 40 kilogrammes.
Cotton prices in Sindh are said to the moved up by Rs 100 per maund (37.32 Kgs) for the higher grades and Rs 200 per maund for the lower grades. In the Punjab, lint prices are said to have gone up by Rs 150 to Rs 200 per maund.
The lint prices in Sindh moved up to range from Rs 6000 to Rs 6700 per maund. In the Punjab, they went up to range from Rs 6200 to Rs 6800 per maund. Thus in general lint prices in Punjab moved up from Rs 150 to Rs 200 per maund in a tight market.
According to the seedcotton (Kapas/Phutti) arrivals report issued by the Pakistan cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) for the period ending on 15th of January 2017, from the current crop (2016/2017) total arrivals were 10,535,922 bales (155 Kgs) from which the textile mills picked up 9,238,656 bales. Exporters lifted 199,844 bales while unsold stock lying with the ginners is said to be 1,097,422 bales.
Tightness in the price of domestic cotton was said to be due to the general firmness in the prices of lint in the United States, India and China. Yarn and textile prices were also reported to be higher due to the recently announced Export Package by the government giving relief to the exporters.
Correction Please refer to the Cotton Analysis published on 13 January, 2017. Due to an oversight, it was wrongly stated that Pakistani exporters may ship between 1.5 to two million bales of cotton during this season (2016/2017). Actually, the shipment projections for cotton exports from Pakistan during the current season are likely to be from 150,000 to about 200,000 bales. The error is regretted.
On the global economic and financial front, there appears to be a period of socio-political as well as economic flux where old doctrines and dogmas which stood the test of time since the past six decades or so are seem crumbling speedily. The old order is thus fading away undenyingly but has not yet yielded to any new or unified order to replace it. Thus the current economic order is becoming murkier day by day and is bursting at the seams with no clear format or charter on which to model the new incoming order.
On the face of it, no new socioeconomic order is prepared to be installed to replace the old order and each country and its leaders appear to be suggesting half-baked ideas and intention to be installed on the global polity.
On Friday President Donald Trump will be seated in the White House to try his hand to unite the world into a new formulation to cover the global leadership which will hopefully unite to offer an equitable, peaceful, and efficiently workable superstructure for the betterment and progress of mankind at large.
However, the bitter truth is that the incumbent American president Donald Trump will be an embattled president. To begin with, it is unfortunate that a large number of public leaders, legislators and the establishment have announced not attending his inaugural ceremony. The boycott of Trump's inaugural ceremony on 20th January, 2017 at the U.S. Capitol will be a regretful activity and will not only be unfortunate, it will certainly portray a divided United States of America. It will show the infighting in the political arena at a projected gathering for nearly a million people. Whoever may be cited as being responsible for this eventuality, where even Trumps own party members, namely several of the Republicans, are said to join the fray at the inaugural of the president elect.
The world's richest and most powerful people are presently meeting at Davos in Switzerland (17 - 20 January, 2017) with the ostensible aim to cooperate with each other and bring peace and promote sustainable modes and methods towards equitable growth and economic development. In the present desire of many people to create a new world over, the incumbent president Donald Trump of America wants to scrap all trade deals between different countries and regions. He also believes that the Western military alliances are also obsolete. In this scenario, China is reported to be quite upset and angry over Trump's remarks regarding the one nation theory of China.
Whatever the merits of deferent positions taken by different entities, it is lamentable that it is also ginning rise to populism in several Western countries. it is generally understood that such ideas and declarations by several leaders around the world are breeding the regretful rise to nationalism and populism which are against the established countries as in Europe, America, South Asia, the Middle East the Far East.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017