Cotton Prices Rise on Export Projections
February 9, 2010 By Elizabeth Campbell
Bloomberg
Cotton prices surged the most allowed by ICE Futures U.S., reaching a three-week high, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture raised its forecast for exports of the fiber by 9.1 percent.
The U.S., the world’s biggest cotton exporter, will ship 12 million bales in the marketing year that began Aug. 1, up from a January estimate of 11 million, the USDA said today in a report. China, the world’s largest buyer of the fiber, and India will use more because of a stronger-than-expected recovery in demand, the agency said.
Prices are up because of “pronounced tightness on U.S. supply,” said Keith Brown, the president of Keith Brown & Co., a brokerage in Moultrie, Georgia. “At this rate of business, we’re going to dwindle our supplies.”
Cotton futures for March delivery rose 1.8 cents, or 2.6 percent, to 70.96 cents a pound at 10:11 a.m. on ICE Futures in New York. Earlier, prices jumped 3 cents, the daily limit set by the exchange, to $72.16, the highest price since Jan. 19.
Before today, cotton advanced 39 percent in the past year as adverse weather hampered the U.S. harvest and damaged crop quality.
(Story found in original format here.)
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