China cotton imports: imports were 59.7kt in Apr, 2025, down 282.2kt from the same period of last year and down 14kt from Mar, 2025. In the first fourth months of 2025, imports totaled 398kt, down 71.1% or 980.4kt year on year, and from Sep 2024 to Apr 2025, imports totaled 865.2kt, down 65% or 1.6065 million tons year on year. 

Import detals in Apr, 2025:

In Apr 2025, China imported 59.7kt of cotton, continuing a month-on-month decline of 14kt and a sharp year-on-year decrease of 282.2kt. The only countries with import volumes exceeding 10,000 tons in Apr were Brazil and US, with year-on-year declines of 143kt and 110kt respectively. Among them, imports of Brazilian cotton fell by 22kt month-on-month, and all import volumes in Apr were relatively low. 

In terms of import share, the proportion of Brazilian cotton significantly declined in Apr, dropping 23 percentage points from 60% in the previous month and 11 percentage points from 48% in the same period last year. US cotton accounted for 30% in Apr, an increase of 11 percentage points from 19% in the previous month but a decrease of 8 percentage points from 38% in the same period last year. The share of other countries rose significantly to 24%, mainly from Turkey and Israel, with Turkey importing 9,800 tons (17%) and Israel importing 1,800 tons (3%). 

For the terms of trade, the share of general trade in Apr 2025 continued to increase by 12 percentage points from the previous month to 33%. The combined proportion of entrepot trade by bonded area and customs warehousing trade accounted for 60%, a decrease of 16 percentage points from 76% in the previous month. The proportion of processing with import materials increased by 4 percentage points from the previous month to 7%. 

In Apr 2025, the top three import destinations were enterprises in Shandong, Jiangsu, and Shanghai. The proportion of Shandong Province increased by 2 percentage points from the previous month to 41%, Jiangsu Province decreased by 4 percentage points to 22%, and Shanghai continued to increase by 3 percentage points from the previous month to 19%.

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 Apr 2025, the largest volume of cotton imports in China still came from Brazil. However, both the month-on-month and year-on-year import volumes of Brazilian cotton declined significantly, though imports remained higher than those in the 2022/23 season. In Apr, the imports of Brazilian cotton were 21.9kt, a month-on-month decrease of 22kt and a year-on-year decrease of 143kt. From Jan to Apr 2025, China imported 223kt of Brazilian cotton, a year-on-year decrease of 438kt.

During the 2024/25 season (Sep to Apr), China imported 426kt of Brazilian cotton, a decrease of 653kt compared to the same period last year (1.079 million tons).

The unit price of imported cotton is calculated as the average price obtained by dividing the total import value by the total quantity. In Apr 2025, among the main imported cotton varieties, the unit price of Brazilian cotton decreased slightly, while that of US cotton continued a marginal increase. A small quantity of long-staple cotton also arrived this month. Specifically, the unit price of Brazilian cotton stood at79.07cent/lb and US cotton at92.14cent/lb in Apr.

Conclusion:

In May 2025, China cotton imports may be stable with a moderate decline month on month, but large decrease year on year. Imports will remain relatively low overall.