Fibre, yarn and fabric: the numbers

Every table and chart on this desk

One line each, in the order a buyer reads them. Each link opens the page that holds it.

• The week in numbers Every figure on this page in one place, grouped the way a buyer reads them, each one with the publisher it came from.
• What the fibre costs Start here. Everything downstream is priced off this.
  • Cotton prices The US spot, the ICE nearby and the world reference price, with last week and last year beside them so a move has a size.
  • Benchmarks by origin Pakistan, India and the world index side by side, in one unit, so a Karachi quotation can be checked against the world.
  • The fibre and the oil, daily US spot cotton and WTI crude one point per trading day, with a hover readout, plus the Cotlook A monthly benchmark, so this week’s move has a scale beside it.
  • Cotton against polyester Cotton or polyester: which one moved. The question behind most "should we change the blend" conversations.
  • Polyester, from oil to yarn Crude to PTA to fibre, so you can see whether a polyester quotation is a feedstock move or a margin move.
• Whether supply is at risk Read this second. It tells you whether today’ price is likely to hold.
  • World balance sheet The USDA production, use and ending stocks by region. Stocks to use is the single best one number answer to "is cotton tight".
  • How the cotton crop is doing Drought and condition in the growing regions that matter. A fibre signal only; it does not move a garment quotation.
  • Speculative positioning How crowded the futures position is, and the unfixed on-call sales that still have to be priced, which is buying that has not happened yet.
• What the yarn costs Third. Fibre plus a conversion cost, and this is where you check the conversion.
  • Export benchmark by origin What yarn actually leaves each country at, so a mill’ number has something to sit against.
  • Spinning routes Ring, open end and textured, tracked separately. A route change explains a price gap that a fibre price cannot.
  • The yarn reference sheet Indicative levels by specification, collected weekly from mills and traders, with the sheet itself once it goes live.
• Who sells fibre, yarn and fabric, and who buys it Fourth. Price says what a kilo costs; this says who has kilos to sell.
  • Fibre, by country What each country bought in and sold out of cotton and man made staple over a full year, biggest seller first, with the change on its own year before.
  • Who trades fibre with whom The ten largest customers and the ten largest suppliers of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh for raw cotton and staple fibre, with value and share of the whole.
  • Yarn, by country The same for cotton and synthetic staple yarn. A country that sells almost none of it will not become a good yarn supplier because you asked.
  • Who trades yarn with whom The ten largest customers and the ten largest suppliers of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh for cotton and synthetic yarn, with value, share and dollars per kilogram.
  • Fabric, by country Woven cotton, woven man made filament and staple, and knitted fabric, thirteen customs headings added together for the same countries and years as the fibre and yarn tables.
  • Who trades fabric with whom The ten largest customers and the ten largest suppliers of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh for woven and knitted fabric, with value and share of the whole.
  • Product by product Raw cotton, synthetic staple fibre, cotton yarn and synthetic staple yarn each on its own table, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh first. Bangladesh is counted by its trading partners, because it has filed nothing itself since 2018.
  • Fabric, family by family The thirteen fabric headings taken apart into the four families a buyer shops in, woven cotton, woven man made filament, woven man made staple and knitted, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh first, with a dollars per kilogram column where the weight was filed.
  • India, month by month The last twelve months India has filed for fibre, yarn and fabric, sold out and bought in, with a chart of the exports so the season shows as a shape.
• The supplier’s currency The rupee and the taka against the dollar, daily, because a mill quotes in one and pays its costs in the other.
• Shipping and country costs Last. The two things that turn a mill price into your cost.
  • Container freight Box rates and the same rates as cents per kilo at four realistic load weights. Downloadable, with a reckoner for your own quoted rate.
  • Freight, South Asian lanes both ways What three carriers asked to move a box out of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, how far that freight moved through the year, what the run back from Europe costs, and the surcharge on fibre, yarn and greige cloth coming in from China. No free freight index covers these lanes, so these are dated carrier announcements, ending with the tools that give you a live figure.
  • Country costs Wages, power and tariffs by origin, each with its own year stated, so an origin comparison is made on published figures rather than on reputation.
  • Which country for which cloth The long version from the fabric buying guide: what each country sells as cloth and as blend, why Bangladesh is missing from the tables, and whether a country grows the cotton it weaves.
• The whole path, for a fibre or yarn buyer Numbered stops across every page on the site, in the order to meet them, each with a line saying what it is and why it comes there. The course for a fibre, yarn or fabric buyer.