Market Morsel: High Fibre Fortunes
Market Morsel
No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. The same can be said of fibres. No fibre is an island; they are part of the whole.
On a regular basis, we compare the fibres, as it provides a quick outlook on the market structure across the major fibre types.
The chart below shows the following fibre types as an index, with 2015 being 100. The index’s value is that it allows the reader to quickly determine the rate of growth easily with pricing at different levels of magnitude.
- Zhengzhou cotton futures
- ICE cotton futures
- Chinese polyester & acrylic
- Eastern market indicator (wool)
The cotton market took a little fall in the past month, but remains at very strong levels, EMI on the other hand recovered some ground.
On a yearly basis, we can that the EMI is down, with the June monthly average down 4% on last June. Cotton however is up a whopping 64%. Good times for the cotton farmers.
The cotton-wool ratio continues to languish at extremely low levels. This ratio is the amount of cotton required to purchase wool. It is bouncing off the lowest levels since the 1990s.
There are many analysts concerned about the economic environment. Wool, and cotton to an extent, are commodities which are driven by consumer demand. If the world experiences a period of reduced growth due to financial strife, we could see a reduction in demand.
We wrote about the impact of various economic indicators on wool, including copper, crude oil and Chinese bonds.
