Market Morsel: The fibre flock is separating
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. Our last update was in December (see here).
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
- Eastern market indicator (wool)
Cotton has really been the winner in price growth over the past year, with very strong rises of 44-45% dependent on exchange. The EMI has however owned gained 1% in USD terms, although a more healthy 10% in AUD terms.
Typically fibres tend to trade in similar trends, but the EMI hasn’t had the same growth in the past year. Although it is important to note that the finer quality wools have performed better than the EMI, yet still underperforming compared to cotton.
