Trading at cotton market was lackluster as demand remained soft though prices were mostly stable on Thursday. The seed cotton (kapas / phutti) prices in Sindh are said to have ranged from Rs 2000 to Rs 2900 per 40 kgs, while in the Punjab they reportedly extended from Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 per 40 kilogrammes according to the quality. Business was reported to have been conducted in moderate quantities.

Also the lint prices of lint have not hardened during this week despite a large loss of nearly five million bales (155 kgs) in cotton output this season (August 2015 / July 2016) with an output now projected at only about 10 million bales in Pakistan, while the mills consumption may be around 13.5 million bales of cotton.

Mills sources informed that they have already booked 1.8 million bales for import till this time and are likely to import a total of 2.5 million bales during the current season (2015 / 2016).

The nearly lackluster appearance ofcotton market is also the payments problem mills are facing. Not only the textile mills remain in bad shape, but most of the components of cotton economy, namely the growers, the ginners, the mills and the value-added sectors are going through a very rough patch. Exporters were conspicuously missing from the market.

Report from the textile sector added that open end mills were suffering severely. Gas shortage in Punjab remains a large and substantive problem for the textile industry. Moreover, mills sector has complained that mixing seeds and their poor quality has been responsible for low cotton output besides being responsible for low quality of cotton fibre.

The Chairman of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Punjab, Aamir Fayyaz said early this week that Punjab textile mills will perforce be closed down throughout the province at the end of this month due to delay in the announcement of the bailout package for the textile industry by the government. He further added that all the textile associations from Punjab have contacted APTMA for collective action against the government's lack of interest towards the problems of the textile industry. The spinning sector is particularly reported to be on the verge of a shutdown.

In ready sales on Thursday, 200 bales of cotton from Nawabshah in Sindh are said to have been sold at Rs 5,250 per maund (37.32 kgs), while 400 bales from Rohri were said to have been sold at Rs 5,315 per maund. In the Punjab, 200 bales from Vihari were said to have been sold at Rs 5,125 per maund, while 200 bales each from Chichawatni and Hasilpur sold at Rs 5,150 per maund, and 1,000 bales from Sadiqabad reportedly sold at Rs 5,600 per maund.