China: cashmere

The price and production of cashmere kept quite stable over September and October. Limited availability of raw material supported the high prices that we’ve seen in the last three months and kept the market quiet.

Mongolia: cashmere

The Mongolian cashmere market is pretty stable at the moment. In the first 10 months of 2018 around 8,200 tons of greasy cashmere were exported. Specifically, 5,000 tons of scoured cashmere (equivalent to 7,500 tons of greasy) and 390 tons of dehaired cashmere (equivalent to 780 tons of greasy) were exported.

So far, the main importers of dehaired cashmere have been:

– Italy: 330 tons

– England: 50 tons

– India: 5 tons

– Japan: 1.5 tons

– Other countries: 3.5 tons

Based on Chinese traders’ forecasts, prices of cashmere for the next season will be as high or even higher, mainly because of a strong decrease in livestock.

Iran: cashmere

The Iranian cashmere market hasn’t changed price-wise, but the quantity and quality of available material is lower than September. On offer at the moment is mainly short-producing tannery material.

China: silk

Mulberry: The production of new cocoons has been similar to last year, but the mulberry silk quilts market came down a little bit. Besides, the price of silk filament dropped 30% compared to the end of last year, so the price of materials for silk tops has come down accordingly, starting from August. After the drop of the last months, the prices of materials and tops kept in a reasonably stable position. And, thanks to the depreciation of the RMB, the price in USD reduced a lot, but it is not expected that the RMB will weaken further in the near future.

Tussah: At the end of October the new cocoons clip ended. The prediction is 50% less than last year due to bad weather. The price was 15% higher than the last few months, but it was stable during October. The market for tops is still quiet, but the tussah silk quilts business is expected to be quite positive until the end of the year.

On top of that, the quality of tussah tops is much better than last year, considering neps and contamination.