There's No Better Timeto Meet Your Partners in Asia

摘要

Asia has always been essential to the global cotton business and is only becoming more important, as evidenced by the growing fields in India and the expansion of existing mills and emerging new players in Southeast Asia, where the main costs of production (labor and electrical) are still among the cheapest in the world. Asia's economies are still growing, albeit slower than before, and some parts of the region have yet to feel the impact of the global crisis. This situation has temporarily shifted global investment and business activity to Asia. But opportunities rarely come without their share of challenges. In our opinion, the current challenge for the cotton industry in Asia is competition with synthetics. The volatility of cotton prices has left many spinners with a stock of high-priced cotton, contract defaults and cash-flow problems. In order to continue production, many have chosen to shift to the locally available, lower-cost synthetics. As a man-made fiber with uniform characteristics, synthetics are easier to produce and handle than cotton, resulting in lower capital requirements and production costs.