China cotton imports: imports were 34.5kt in May, 2025, to hit 20-year new low, down 225.7kt from the same period of last year and down 25.2kt from Apr, 2025. In the first five months of 2025, imports totaled 432.5kt, down 73.6% or 1.2061 million tons year on year, and from Sep 2024 to May 2025, imports totaled 899.7kt, down 67% or 1.8322 million tons year on year. 

Import details in May, 2025:

In May 2025, China imported 34.5kt of cotton, reaching a 20-year new low. The only countries with import volumes exceeding 10,000 tons was Brazil, with year-on-year declines of 93kt. Imports of U.S. cotton were only 8.3kt, down by 132kt year on year, mainly due to low volumes of cotton quotas in 2024/25 season. 

In terms of import share, Brazilian cotton accounted for 39% in May 2025, which was little changed from 37% in the previous month and slightly lower than 41% in the same period last year. U.S. cotton accounted for 24%, continuing to be lower than 30% in the previous month and dropping by 30 percentage points from 54% in the same period last year. Australian cotton accounted for 10%, slightly increasing from 6% in the previous month and far higher than the same period last year. However, the import volume in the whole of May was not large, so the significance represented by the import proportion was small.

For the terms of trade, the proportion of general trade in May decreased by 11 percentage points from the previous month to 22%; the combined proportion of entrepot trade by bonded area and customs warehousing trade accounted for 62%, a decrease of 2 percentage points from 60% in the previous month; the proportion of processing with import materialsincreased by 9 percentage points from the previous month to 16%. 

In May 2025, the top three regions for cotton imports by enterprises were Shandong, Shanghai, and Jiangsu. The proportion of Shandong decreased by 4 percentage points from the previous month to 37%, the proportion of Shanghai increased by 3 percentage points to 22%, and the proportion of Jiangsu decreased by 2 percentage points from the previous month to 20%.

General condition of China cotton imports:

On the afternoon of July 31, 2024, after the closing of Zhengzhou cotton, the relevant department released the announcement on the allocation of the sliding-scale duty quota for imported cotton in 2024. The allocation volume was only 200,000 tons, all of which were non - state - trading quotas, limited to the enterprises that had carried out cotton processing trade since 2020, and imported in the form of processing trade. The sliding-scale duty quotas were distributed successively in September. At the end of September, 894,000 tons of cotton quotas under 1% tariff was announced, and this part of the quota was distributed for use in January 2025. The known quota for the 2024/25 season was only 1.094 million tons for the time being.

On March 4, 2025, the Tariff Commission of the State Council announced an additional 15% tariff on US cotton. Under the 1% tariff quota, the import tax rate of US cotton was: 1% + 15% + 10% reciprocal tariff. It was expected that the import volume of US cotton would remain at a low level in the later period.

In May 2025, the largest volume of cotton imports in China still came from Brazil, though the year-on-year decline was significant. China imported 13.3kt of Brazilian cotton in May, a month-on-month decrease of 8.6kt and a year-on-year decrease of 93kt. From Jan to May 2025, China's imports of Brazilian cotton reached 236kt, a year-on-year decrease of 531kt. In the 2024/25 season (Sept to May), China imported 439kt of Brazilian cotton, a year-on-year decrease of 746kt compared to 1.185 million tons in the same period of the previous year.

The unit price of imported cotton is calculated as the average price obtained by dividing the total import value by the total quantity. In May 2025, among the main imported cotton varieties, the unit price of Brazilian cotton decreased slightly. As the import volume from other countries was relatively small and less representative, their monthly unit prices showed significant fluctuations. Specifically, the unit price of Brazilian cotton imported in May was 77.9cent/lb.

Conclusion:

Due to limited cotton quotas, cotton imports may remain at historical low level in Jun, 2025.