What moves fiber prices: cotton, polyester and viscose

Each fiber answers to a different market. Cotton is a farm crop, so it moves with the monsoon, how much land farmers sow, the government's minimum support price, state buying, world stocks and import duty. Polyester is made from oil, so it follows crude and its two raw materials, PTA and MEG, plus how much factory capacity exists and any anti-dumping duty. Viscose is made from wood pulp by a few large producers, so pulp cost and demand set the pace. Currency, freight and policy sit on top of all three. A fiber move then travels through yarn, greige and finishing, arriving at the finished fabric smaller and later than the headline suggests.