India Decides to End Cotton-Export Ban After Protests From Growers, China
By Tushar Dhara and Pratik Parija - Sun Mar 11 11:10:22 GMT 2012 ..India, the worlds second-biggest cotton producer, will end a ban on exports after protests from growers, traders and China, the nations biggest buyer.
Keeping in view the interests of the farmers, industry, trade, a balance view has been considered by the Group of Ministers to roll back the ban, Trade Minister Anand Sharma said in an e-mailed statement today.
The ministry will publish details for repealing its March 5 ban tomorrow, Sharma said. India banned shipments to secure domestic supplies after sales exceeded the governments estimate of exportable surplus. Resumption of exports may add to global supplies and pressure futures, which have fallen 55 percent in New York in the past year.
This will help farmers get a higher price immediately, at least 10 percent more, and encourage cotton planting for next year, Dhiren Sheth, president of the Cotton Association of India, said in a phone interview today. The government decision will help avoid disputes and arbitration in international markets.
India suspended sales after shipments surged to about 9.4 million bales, more than the surplus of 8.4 million bales estimated by the government. Traders had registered to ship 12 million bales, the countrys Textile Ministry said.
International Trade
The ban drove prices up by the daily limit on March 5, and to 94.24 cents, the highest level since Feb. 17. The May- delivery contract fell 0.9 percent at 88.80 cents on ICE Futures U.S. on March 9.
The world will have a record trade surplus of 2 million bales of 480 pounds (218 kilograms) if India exported all the cotton registered, Morgan Stanley analysts led by Hussein Allidina said in an e-mailed report on March 9. Alternately, Indian exports would likely crowd out incremental U.S. exports, portending to large-scale U.S. export sale cancellations through the balance of the marketing year, Morgan Stanley said.
The brokerage lowered its 2011-2012 price estimate to 90 cents a pound from $1, citing weak global demand.
The prohibition damages international trade, the China Cotton Association said on March 8. The association, supervised by Chinas Ministry of Civil Affairs, hopes that the Indian government revokes the incorrect policy, it said. The Chinese association is the countrys biggest trade group for the fiber and has farmers, cooperatives and users as members, according to its website.
The Liverpool, U.K.-based International Cotton Association, which handles contract arbitration, has said the prohibition will have a major, detrimental impact on global trade.
India is set to supply 17 percent of global exports in 2011-2012, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates.
To contact the reporters on this story: Tushar Dhara in New Delhi at
tdhara1@bloomberg.net. Pratik Parija in New Delhi at
pparija@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at
jpoole4@bloomberg.net.
India Decides to End Cotton-Export Ban After Protests From Growers, China - Bloomberg
Air India ticket sales jump 32% in Feb
Mumbai: Debt-stricken Air India has registered another improvement in year-on-year performance in February, with average passenger revenue growing by a healthy 32 percent, a senior airline official said.
While revenue from international network grew 20 percent, the same from the domestic network rose nearly 58 percent during the period, taking the overall revenue rise to 32 percent.
"The airline's on-time performance has improved by up to 80 percent across the network, in the first week of March, reaching as high as 88 percent on March 8," the official said.
While capacity on its international services remained more or less stagnant, on the domestic service, it went up by 20 percent and on the overall network by 4 percent, he added.
There was also an increase in the number of passengers carried, which went up 13.4 percent on the overall network, he said.
The airline's yield per revenue kilometre increased 17 percent on international routes and nearly 31 percent on its domestic routes. On the overall network, there has been a 24 percent increase in the yield.
Increase in fuel cost, however, continues to dent Air India's substantial increase in revenues, he said.
"However, aviation turbine fuel prices alone registered an increase of 20 percent in February. For the entire year, Air India expects the impact of the increase in aviation turbine fuel to be in the region of Rs 2,000 crore. On a cumulative basis, from April 2011 to February 2012, its fuel cost has gone up by 40 percent. If it was not for the fuel price we would have done far better," he said.
He said that the airline is also examining the idea of direct import of fuel as recently permitted by the government to save on fuel cost.
Air India's financial restructuring plan is awaiting Cabinet approval and most of the banks have agreed in principle to the Rs 18,000 crore debt restructuring plan.
Some cost rationalisation measures already implemented by Air India include, phasing out of its Airbus 310 aircraft, reduction in the deployment of Boeing 747s, return of its leased aircraft, grounding of its ageing fleet for disposal, refinancing of some of the high cost loans with lower interest rates, as well as reduction of contractual employment.
"We have reduced the number of our former employees hired, who had been on contract. This has reduced our costs," he said.
The airline is also set to implement its new international schedule from March 25 by increasing frequencies on the Delhi-Tokyo-Delhi route from four flights to five flights per week.
The frequency on the Delhi-Dammam-Delhi route will be increased from two flights per week to daily flights, while the Delhi-Bahrain-Delhi route would have daily connectivity. Also, daily flights will be introduced on the Dubai-Vizag route, he said.
On the domestic network, the airline will increase its frequency on the Mumbai-Kochi-Mumbai to two flights daily and also introduce a new Hyderabad-Kolkata-Hyderabad flight, the official said.
Meanwhile, Boeing will shortly showcase the airline's Dreamliner Boeing 787aircraft painted in Air India's colors and internal livery at the Hyderabad Air Show 2012 between March 14 and 18 March. The Boeing Dreamliner is expected to be cornerstone of Air India's turnaround due to its fuel efficiencies.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, March 11, 2012, 13:34
Air India ticket sales jump 32% in Feb