Market Morsel: Natural and unnatural fibres

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 monthly basis we look at the comparison of fibres (see last month), 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)

Generally the fibres follow one another quite closely, due to their end use being similar. Cotton posted the largest gains with ICE & ZCE cotton futures rising 5%, the EMI 1%. The unnatural fibres were a mixed bag with polyester up 3% and acrylic down 8%.