China, the world's biggest producer and consumer of cotton, may reduce imports by 32 percent this year, pressuring international prices, as a record domestic crop boosts supplies.
Imports may fall to 2.8 million metric tons in the marketing year through August, as output is forecast to rise 25 percent to 7.1 million tons, Shi Jianwei, vice chairman of the China Cotton Association, said today in an interview at a conference in Urumqi, capital of northwestern Xinjiang Province.

Slowing imports by China in the final quarter of 2006 and the first quarter of 2007 weighed on New York cotton futures, which reached a low for the year of 46.85 cents a pound on May 14. Still, prices have risen 31 percent since then, as traders expected shipments to China to increase in the second half.

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