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Reference

Every trade word, in one plain sentence

67 trade words, every one this site uses, defined in one plain sentence and grouped by where a buyer actually meets it.

Showing pages for fibre, yarn and fabric buyers. Some rows of this menu are hidden. Nothing on the page itself is.

67 trade words, every one this site uses, defined in one plain sentence and grouped by where a buyer actually meets it rather than alphabetically. Units and counts first, because a count is the thing people ask about most and the one most often explained badly. Then fibre, yarn, fabric and garments, in the order the material moves. Then the words you meet at the border and at the bank: Incoterms, letters of credit, the documents nobody mentions until they are missing. Nothing here assumes you already know the vocabulary, which is the entire point of a glossary and is rarer than it should be. If a word you met on this site is not here, tell us and we will add it.

Units and counts

The measures everything else is quoted in.

Ne (cotton count): How fine a spun yarn is, counted as the number of 840 yard hanks that weigh one pound, so a higher number means a finer yarn.
Denier: The weight in grams of 9,000 metres of a filament yarn, so a higher number means a thicker yarn, the opposite direction from Ne.
Tex: The weight in grams of 1,000 metres of yarn, used the same way round as denier.
GSM: Grams per square metre, the standard measure of how heavy a fabric is.
Bale: The pressed unit raw cotton ships in; its weight differs by country, which is why serious contracts state kilograms.
Maund: The Pakistani cotton trade’s unit: the Karachi spot rate is quoted per maund of 37.324 kilograms of lint.
Cents per pound: How international cotton is priced; 100 cents per pound is about 2.20 US dollars per kilogram.
Candy: The Indian cotton trade’s unit, about 356 kilograms of lint, which is what a Shankar-6 quotation is per.

Fibre

The words on a cotton contract and a test report.

Staple length: The typical length of the cotton fibres in millimetres; longer staple spins finer and stronger yarn.
Micronaire: An airflow measure of fibre fineness and maturity; spinners usually specify a middle band rather than either extreme.
Strength (grams per tex): How much pull the fibre takes before it breaks, from the same instrument test as the staple figure.
Trash: The leaf and plant matter left in ginned cotton; more trash means more waste and more cleaning in the mill.
Grade: The classer’s combined judgment of a cotton’s colour and cleanliness, written as names like Middling.
Lint: Cotton after ginning, the fibre a mill actually buys; unginned harvest cotton is seed cotton, called phutti in Pakistan.
HVI: High Volume Instrument testing, the standard machine test that reports staple, strength, micronaire and colour for a lot.
Moisture regain: The moisture a fibre naturally holds; invoiced weight is corrected to an agreed regain, which is why weight terms matter as much as the price.

Yarn

The words that move a yarn quotation.

Ring spun: Yarn made on ring frames, the standard route, stronger and smoother than open end at the same count.
Combed: Yarn whose short fibres were combed out before spinning, smoother and dearer than carded.
Open end: A faster, cheaper spinning route mostly for coarser counts, weaker than ring spinning at the same count.
Compact: A ring frame attachment that binds stray fibre ends in for a less hairy yarn; an option on ring spinning, not a system of its own.
Twist: How tightly the fibres are turned together; knitting yarn is twisted softer than weaving warp, and a mill prices each differently.
Singles and resultant count: The count of each single thread and the effective count after plying: 20/2 is two 20s singles twisted together, behaving near a 10.
Uster percentile: How a yarn’s evenness and fault levels compare with world production: at the 25 percent line, only a quarter of the world’s yarns test better.
Cone: The package yarn ships on, commonly around 1.9 kilograms of yarn wound on a centre, packed in cartons or on pallets.

Fabric

The words on a fabric specification and an inspection report.

Greige: Fabric as it leaves the loom or knitting machine, before any dyeing or finishing.
Construction: The warp and weft yarn counts and how many threads of each per inch, written like 40x40 / 133x72.
Warp and weft: The threads running along the length of a woven fabric, and the threads woven across them.
Ends and picks: The number of warp and weft threads per inch; more of either means a denser cloth.
Lab dip: A small dyed sample submitted for your colour approval before any bulk fabric is dyed.
Shade band: The agreed range of colour variation that bulk fabric may show against the approved standard.
Four point system: The standard fabric inspection method: each defect earns one to four penalty points, and the contract caps the points allowed per hundred square yards.
Finish: Any treatment after weaving or dyeing, such as mercerising, brushing or a resin, that changes the cloth’s look, feel or behaviour.

Garments

The words between a brand and a factory.

Tech pack: The one document a factory can quote from: drawing, measurements with tolerances, fabric, trims, stitching, labels and packing.
MOQ: Minimum order quantity, counted per style and per colour, and set in practice by the fabric mill’s minimum dye lot rather than by the sewing line.
CMT: Cut, make and trim: a price covering only the factory’s cutting and sewing, with the fabric bought and supplied by you.
Sample charge: What a factory bills for developing your samples; it is the factory’s own number and a serious quote states it.
Sealed sample: The approved sample, signed and kept by both sides, that bulk production is judged against.
Size set: One sample of each size, sewn to prove the grading before bulk is cut.
PP sample: The pre production sample, sewn from actual bulk fabric and trims just before the run starts.
AQL: Acceptable quality limit, the sampling standard an inspection works to; AQL 2.5 is the common level for clothing.
Tolerance: The agreed allowance by which a measurement, a weight or a delivered quantity may differ from the order.
Grading: Scaling the base size pattern up and down to produce every size on the size chart.

Trade terms and shipping

The words that decide who pays for which leg.

HS code: The harmonised system number every traded product is classified under; the first six digits are the same worldwide and the rest are national.
Incoterm: The standard three letter terms that say who pays for which leg of the journey and where the risk passes from seller to buyer.
FOB: Free on board: the seller’s price includes getting the goods onto the ship, and the freight and everything after it are yours.
CFR and CIF: The seller’s price includes the sea freight to your port, and under CIF the insurance as well.
DDP: Delivered duty paid: the seller’s price includes freight, customs clearance and the duty, all the way to your door.
Bill of lading: The shipping line’s document for the cargo, which is what the goods are claimed with at the far end.
Certificate of origin: The document that proves where goods were made, which is what a duty preference is claimed on.
Rules of origin: Each market’s tests for where a product is really from; a garment can lose a zero duty rate because its fabric was woven in a third country.
TEU and FEU: The counting units for containers: a TEU is a twenty foot box and an FEU a forty foot one, which is the box most garment freight quotes mean.
Demurrage: What the port or the line charges for every day a container sits uncollected past its free days.

Payment

The words between you, your bank and the supplier’s.

Letter of credit: Your bank’s promise to pay the supplier once the shipping documents match the credit’s terms exactly.
At sight: A letter of credit paid as soon as the documents are presented and found in order, rather than after a further credit period.
TT: Telegraphic transfer, an ordinary bank transfer; safe exactly in proportion to how well you know the account you are sending to.
Pro forma invoice: The supplier’s pre shipment invoice stating goods, price and terms; the document a deposit is properly paid against.
Deposit and balance: The share paid to start production and the remainder paid later, commonly against the shipping documents or a passed inspection.
On-call: Cotton booked now with the price fixed later against the futures market: quantity certainty first, price later, and not a place to learn by doing.
Basis: The difference between a physical cotton price and the futures price it is quoted against, which moves on its own.

Market and data words

The words behind the numbers pages on this site.

ICE futures: The New York cotton futures contract, the reference price the world’s cotton is traded against.
Cotlook A Index: A daily average of the cheaper offers for cotton delivered to the Far East, treated by the trade as the world physical price.
WASDE: The USDA’s monthly world supply and demand estimates, the balance sheet the cotton market argues about.
Stocks to use: Ending stocks divided by consumption; the single best one number answer to whether cotton is tight.
Unit value: A trade value divided by a trade quantity: an average price per piece or per kilo across everything shipped, which is context for a quote and never a quote.
CIF value: A customs value that includes the freight and insurance to get the goods there, which is one reason import and export figures for the same trade differ.
MFN rate: The most favoured nation duty: what a market charges countries it has no special arrangement with.
GSP: A rich market’s scheme of reduced duties for developing countries, and the family of schemes Bangladesh’s European zero rate belongs to today.

The words in use: the garment guide and the raw material guide walk the purchases these words come from, step by step