Polyester use at yarn plants should be favored by the rise of cotton prices in the past months whereas polyester prices were staying stable. The current decline of PSF prices in China should boost demand for polyester at Chinese spinning mills. In India and Pakistan, the cotton/polyester spread has surged in the last 12 months also favoring PSF use.
Demand for polyester staple fibers could be boosted in the coming period, after cotton prices have significantly risen in the past months on the international market and on domestic markets in India and Pakistan whereas also steadily increasing in China.
By contrast, polyester prices have returned back to lower levels at the end last year, after surging in the last summer, especially in China.
PSF prices have stayed relatively stable since the start of the new year and they are now declining in China, which could further boost the price advantage of polyester compared with cotton.
In India especially, cotton prices have surged in the last months, with the benchmark Shankar 6 still rising 6.6% in April, if considering the average price over the month.
In Pakistan, cotton prices have further gained 2%, still in rupee terms while they were only up 0.6% in yuan terms in China.
In the meantime, PSF prices have stayed rather unchanged everywhere and polyester has therefore become much cheaper compared with cotton.
The cotton vs polyester price difference has risen 0.8% in April in China, surging 46% in India and gaining 12% in Pakistan.
From a year earlier, the price gap has gained 24.4% and 14.4% in India and Pakistan respectively, which should boost the PSF use in spinning mills of both countries.
In China, the price difference has only gained 2% but cotton is much more expensive compared with polyester than in India and Pakistan.
In addition, the current fall of polyester prices should further increase the price difference with cotton.
Source: Emergingtextiles
