Farzana Alam Piya, SARSTEC
The global demand for cotton wear, as made of temperature sensitive fibre, is rising up day by day. Its current market share is about 60% for all fibers, used for both apparel & home furnishing. Now a days clothing is used not only to hide the intimate parts of body & but also to reveal one’s social status, sense of fashion. Besides that, consumer’s personal comfort is also considered. Containing 90% cellulose, 6% moisture and the remainder fats & impurities, cotton is the most widely used natural fiber. More than 4 in 5 consumers say, that cotton is their favorite’s fiber to wear.
This is because, cotton fibre is very light and soft. Due to its unique fibre structure, it is more comfortable than synthetic fibres. Its high durability, fair heat conductivity (40%) and moisture controlling (8.5%) power make cotton the best wear for summer. Again for its weather resistance nature, it can easily be layered and used, during cooler months. Cotton keeps the body cool in summer and warm in winter. So, it can be said an all-weather textile. This is why, consumers require cotton. They are also ready to pay higher price, in order to get pure cotton wear. Besides cotton is also hypo-allergenic. For making bandages, gauze, baby wear, inner-shirts & under wear, cotton is the first choice. As a result, the demand for mercerized cotton is increasing significantly to end users industries. Suppliers think, it is the deal for its business. In order to meet up the demand of cotton, local spinning mill & cotton traders are importing cotton of different staple length & also the number of spinning mill is increasing.
North America and Europe are making huge investment in R&D activities, in order to reduce manufacturing cost of the product and expand the application area of mercerized cotton. In past, cotton used to be thought as a rich product. But the gap between cotton price and polyester price is becoming narrow, since the middle of 2017. According to ICAC (International Cotton Advisory Committee), global cotton planting area has increased by 11% to 32.5 million hectares and the global production of cotton has increased from 21 million tons to 25.74 million tons in last 2 years.
