Why cotton linter price fails to rise in line with cottonseed?

Cottonseed price has been high when the supply is reducing and cottonseed oil continues to set a record high. The price of both cottonseed and cottonseed oil has exceeded the peak of last year, while cotton linter price keeps weakening amid lackluster demand and fails to overtake the high point of Oct, 2021.

Cottonseed oil prices have been following up in line with the uptrend of crude oil, palm oil and soybean oil this year, especially when the Ukraine-Russia conflict has caused the escalation of global energy and food crisis as well as imported inflation. Since the end of Apr, cottonseed oil has hit new highs by exceeding the peak at the end of Oct in 2021, maintaining as high as 11,000yuan/mt. Cottonseed market is obviously bolstered by high price of cottonseed oil and cottonseed suppliers quote firmly when the supply is decreasing during the later period of 2021/22 crop year, thus the price of cottonseed stays at relatively high level.

Cotton linter prices keep firm supported by cottonseed cost, but trades are inactive due to lackluster demand recently and prices keep falling in fluctuation. The current price is much lower than the peak at the end of Oct last year and the trend is divided with that of cottonseed. Now cottonseed in Xinjiang is above 3,700yuan/mt and high-quality sources in Shandong and Hebei are around 3,700yuan/mt (Xinjiang-origin one is around 4,300yuan/mt). Cotton linter for industry-grade refined cotton is around 6,900-7,000yuan/mt.

In conclusion, cottonseed price has been high driven by limited supply and high price of cottonseed oil, while cotton linter market activity is subdued with prices slipped due to dreary demand and no big improvement is expected before the middle of year.