CIS Countries Wait for the Market to Improve

摘要

Business is now extremely limited for the cotton industry in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS); the gap in prices at which the farmers are selling and the buyers are offering to pay is expansive. Damir Makhmunov of the Balt Cotton Group reports that the usual pricing pattern, in which selling and buying levels were determined by a basis CIS index, when an appropriate discount off this index for the base quality was applicable, is not working at present. "This has essentially halted business. Buyers report they would be willing to buy and pay the usual price basis, consistent with established pricing patterns," Makhmunov says. However, sellers at origin are quoting at levels that would at least cover their own fiber production costs, despite where the CIS Index is running. "Soon we will either see the overall market advance to levels where sellers meet the new buying levels, or farmers will be pressed hard enough by their financial limitations and banks' demands to reduce their levels towhere the market buying holds, despite losing money," he continues.