China Customs statistics reveal that in March this year, China's cotton imports reached 625,200 tons, which represented a growth of 126.2% as compared with 349,000 tons in March last year, or a slight increase of 1.5% as compared with 616,000 tons in February this year.

March also saw China's average import price of cotton, at US$2,330 per ton, to rise for the first time from the downtrend since June 2011. It represented a rise of US$18, or 0.8%, per ton compared with February. However, compared with the same month last year, there was a drop of 24.8%.

In the first seven months of 2011/12 cotton year, that is from September 2011 to March 2012, China's cumulative cotton imports reached 3.24 million tons, up by 1.5 million tons, or 86.6%, year on year. On the other hand, the country's cumulative cotton imports in the first three months of 2012 hit 1.57 million tons, which saw a year-on-year increase of 715,900 tons, or 84%, compared with the same period of last year.