World 2013/14 cotton mill use is forecast at 110.2 million bales, up 2 percent from a year earlier. India and Pakistan are forecast to consume 23.3 million bales and 12.0 million bales, respectively, in 2013/14, an increase of 2 percent and 4 percent from the previous year.
Bangladesh and Vietnam are forecast to consume 3.8 million bales and 2.5 million bales, respectively, in 2013/14, an increase of 2 percent and 11 percent from the preceding year.
Projected increases in South and Southeast Asia mill use will be supported by yarn demand from China, where price supports through an official reserve-building policy has constrained the profitability of domestic spinning.
Global ending stocks are forecast at a record 92.5 million bales in 2013/14, up 9 percent from a year earlier. The forecast surge in ending stocks comes as world production outpaces world consumption for the third consecutive year and as global cotton trade is forecast to decline in 2013/14.
China is expected to account for 64 percent (58.9 million bales) of projected global stocks due to the ongoing policy of government cotton purchases for state reserves.
Australia’s 2013/14 ending stocks are forecast at 2.7 million bales, up 19 percent from the previous year and representing 3 percent of global ending stocks. Brazil’s 2013/14 ending stocks are forecast at 5.9 million bales, an 8-percent increase from the previous year.
India’s and Uzbekistan’s 2013/14 ending stocks are forecast to decline 6 percent and 15 percent, respectively, from a year ago, to 7.2 million bales and 1.2 million bales. Ending stocks in the United States are forecast at 2.6 million bales in 2013/14, down 28 percent from a year ago and at one of the lowest levels in recent years.
