Cotton demand from US textile mills falls to lowest level since 1885

U.S. mills are on track to process the smallest amount of cotton since 1985 this year.

The year 1885, that is. The same year the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City Harbor.

According to an updated forecast from the U.S. Department of Agriculture released Monday, U.S. textile mills will feed just 1.74 million bales of cotton into their machines in the 2023-2024 marketing year that ends in July, the slowest pace in 139 years. That's almost 15% less than last year and even less than the agency's previous forecast.

These factories, which turn cotton fibers into yarn and fabric, are among the last bastions of the country's textile industry after decades of growing competition from cheaper foreign production and synthetic materials. Industrial use briefly recovered in the 1990s, when trade agreements encouraged the United States to export yarn and fabric to be made into clothing in other countries before shipping it back and selling it. The respite was short-lived, even as global mill use of cotton surges.

American industrial use “has simply disappeared,” said Peter Egli, director of risk management at Plexus Cotton Ltd. Mills in other countries “were simply operating at much better margins than those produced in the United States.”