Cotton consumption in Thailand during the marketing year (MY) 2014/15 (August 2014 to July 2015), is expected to increase by 5 percent from the current MY2013/14, in anticipation of the recovery of the Thai economy, as per the United States Agricultural Department (USDA) report.
According to the USDA report on Thailand Cotton 2014, higher utilization of spinning mills and recovery of Thai economy is expected to increase domestic cotton consumption in the country by 5 percent year-on-year.
“Spinners are expected to return to their normal capacity utilization rates of 70 to 80 percent driven by a recovery of the domestic and global economies”, the USDA report states.
As per the report, “during the current MY2013/14, as a result of stagnant economy, cotton-fiber spinning mills have cut their capacity utilization to 60 percent, compared to 60 to 70 percent during MY2012/13, mainly due to a reduction in domestic sales.”
“In the first half of MY2013/14, both cotton-fiber and polyester-fiber yarn production declined slightly to 0.3 and 0.6 percent from the same period last year, and domestic sales of cotton-fiber yarn also declined around 3 percent from the same period last year”, the report adds.
As per the report, cotton consumption in MY2013/14—ending on July 30, 2014, is expected to decrease by around 2 percent compared to MY2012/13, due to the slowdown of the domestic economy.
According to the USDA report, during MY2012/13, cotton consumption was higher than expected at 1.54 million bales, an increase of 16 to 17 percent from the previous year due to the strong recovery of spinning mills in the country.