Cotton futures soared to a record on speculation that global supplies will fail to keep pace with rising demand in China, the world's largest user.

Chinese imports surged 86 percent in 2010 as economic growth lifted demand from textile mills and adverse weather hurt the domestic crop. The country's purchases may increase before next month's Lunar New Year holidays, said Han Sung Min, a broker at Korea Exchange Bank Futures Co. On Jan. 12, the U.S. government cut its global-production outlook. Prices have more than doubled in the past year.

Cotton was supported by China's import data and speculation that the country will buy more, as the holidays approach, Seoul-based Han said.

Cotton for March delivery advanced by the exchange limit of 5 cents, or 3.2 percent, to settle at an all-time high of $1.6194 a pound at 2:56 p.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. The most-active contract climbed 11 percent last week, the most since Dec. 3.

September-delivery cotton on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange rose as much as 6.7 percent to 32,530 yuan ($4,940) a metric ton, the highest price since Nov. 10.

This is spillover buying from Chinese exchanges, said Mike Stevens, an independent trader in Mandeville, Louisiana. Cotton prices have exploded in China.

Worldwide output will be 25.138 million tons in the year that began Aug. 1, down from a December estimate of 25.154 million, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said this month. The agency raised its consumption forecast 0.3 percent to 25.382 million tons.

Global inventories at the end of the marketing year are forecast at 9.3 million tons. That will be the tightest since the 1995-1996 season, Luke Mathews, an agricultural commodities strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said last week.

source:bloomberg