China's February cotton imports surge 234% on-year

In February, China imported 616,000 tonnes of cotton, soaring 234% against the same period of 2011, the China Cotton Association reported Thursday (Mar 15), citing data from the General Administration of Customs.

The February imports also jumped 88.7% over a month earlier.

Sharp rise of cotton imports was mainly pushed up by bargain buying, some analysts said.

The import price of cotton continued the decline since last month to reach US$2,312/tonne on average, down 3.7% from the previous month and a dip of 23.2% on-year.

In the first two months of this year, the country totally imported 943,000 tonnes of cotton, up 63.7% from the same period a year earlier.