China's cotton yarn import unit price hits a new low in Sep

I. China's cotton yarn imports totaled 100.8kt in Sep

In Sep 2024, China's cotton yarn imports were around 100.8kt, increasing slightly by about 6.4kt. However, this is significantly lower than the level recorded during the same period last year of 175kt, with a year-on-year decline of about 42.4%. From Jan-Sep 2024, China's total import of cotton yarn reached 1.013 million tons. Judging from the recent domestic procurement and overseas shipments, the annual import volume may be less than 1.4 million tons. In the early stage, domestic cotton yarn prices remains lower than overseas yarn prices for a long time, resulting in a reduction in domestic speculative replenishment. At present, overseas yarn mills still have a strong willingness to hold up prices, and short-term improvements in the profits are not yet obvious.

II China's cotton yarn imports by origin in Sep 2024

In Sep, the import volume of Vietnamese yarn totaled 53.7kt, and the proportion slightly decreased to 53%. The import volume of Pakistani yarn in September increased by more than 5,000 tons compared with August to around 13.6kt, and the import share rose to 14%. The import volume of Malaysian cotton yarn surpassed that of Uzbekistan and ranked third. A total of 7,328 tons arrived in September. The import volume of Uzbekistani yarn continued to decline in September, with a total of about 6,749 tons arriving. After Indian yarn prices rose along with local cotton prices in the early stage, Chinese buyers' orders decreased sharply. In September, the arrival volume ranked after Bangladesh, only about 5,375 tons. According to the unit price of cotton yarn imports, in September, the lower limit of China's cotton yarn import unit price was refreshed again, and the average import unit price dropped to around $2.30/kg. On the one hand, the import cost has indeed decreased to a certain extent. On the other hand, the recent domestic market's preference for importing low-priced coarse-count yarn has increased to a certain extent.

III China's cotton yarn imports by structure and by origin in Sep 2024

In September 2024, China's cotton yarn imports were still concentrated in carded single yarn 8-25s, totaling about 52kt. The import share continued to rise from 49.9% in August to 51.5%. In this specification, Vietnamese yarn accounts for about half. Secondly, the import volume of carded yarn below 8s also increased significantly, with a total of about 25kt arriving, an increase of nearly 8kt compared with August, and the import proportion rose to 24.8%. Judging from the actual circulation situation in the market, this type of specification is mainly composed of Vietnamese coarse-count open-end yarn and Pakistani siro-spun yarn 7s and 8s. In September, only 9,480 tons of carded yarn 30-47s arrived, shrinking by more than 8,000 tons compared with last month. In this specification range, Xinjiang yarn in China has significant cost advantages, and the selling price is long-term lower than that of imported yarn, which has a great impact on the market share of imported yarns such as 32s and 40s. The demand support of orders with traceability requirement is relatively weak.

IV. China's blended cotton yarn imports in Sep 2024

In Sep 2024, China's imports of blended cotton yarn totaled around 10.3kt, showing a slight decrease of about 800 tons compared to Aug and was around 92.2% imported from Vietnam. From January to September 2024, the cumulative import volume of blended cotton yarn has totaled 107kt, and the average monthly import volume was around 10,000 tons. Among the imported blended cotton yarn, carded yarn 8-25s represents about 51.39% of the total, with a total of 5,717 tons arriving. The share of carded yarn below 8s was around 15.76% in Sep. China's imports of ring-spun carded 25-47s was around 1,100 tons, basically the same as last month. Judging from the feedback from Vietnamese yarn mills, the sales progress of blended yarns is currently slightly slower than that of cotton yarns. Many blended yarn mills are still supplying November shipment containers, while the sales of cotton yarns have begun to enter the December shipment period. The price increase of blended cotton yarns is also relatively smaller compared to cotton yarns.