Statistics from the China Customs show that our cotton import value was down by 60.69% in the first two months and as the landed cost of Indian cotton from sea route is still cheaper than the cotton imports from other countries, so that the Indian cotton accounted for 55% of total volume of imported cotton.

In Feb., the total import of cotton amounted to 125,000 tons, almost unchanged from the previous month, whilst accumulative total during Jan.-Feb. amounted to 248,200 tons, down 60.09% from the same period of last year. The actual average import price ran all the way up to $ 1.33/kg, rising 1.53%.

According to the International Cotton Advisory Committee, international cotton trade is expected to rebound from 8.5 million tons in 2006/07 to 9.2 million tons in 2007/08, driven by an expected rebound in Chinese imports.