To help plug a growing deficit in supply, China may match its 2016 sales from state cotton reserves next year, it is gathered. Plans by the world's top textile market to sell off the huge reserves of cotton is being closely watched by the global market, with China holding more than half of the world's inventories after a years-long stockpiling programme.

Amid a surge in financial pressure and a change in policy, the country is now attempting to sell off those stocks. This summer, it sold about 2.5 million tons by way of auctions. This move has extended the sales by an additional month on higher demand from mills.

Zhang Jinguang of the economy and trade division at the National Development and Reform Commission urged the cotton reserves authority to carry out sufficient preparations to make sure that it was ready to release at least one million tonnes by March. China's recent round of reserve auctions led the United States Department of Agriculture to cut its estimate for global stocks earlier this week and raise its figure for Chinese consumption, suggesting that mill demand in China had been previously underestimated.

The move pushed ICE cotton futures to a one-week high. Analysts said, however, that import restrictions would limit benefit to exporters.