Originally Posted by QKO

Don't hold your breath waiting for fabric prices to decrease even a little. About the best we can hope for is that they remain stable and quit going higher.

Cotton prices are only one element in the cost of fabric.

Here are some others:

Oil prices -- Most of the dye used in producing fabric is derived from oil.

Shortages of adequate printing facilities -- many of the large mills in So. Korea and Japan, where the best fabric printing in the world is done -- have shut down leaving a shortage of production facilities.

Transportation costs -- Shipping costs go ever higher due to fuel cost and wage costs. To get fine fabrics you have to ship raw cotton from cotton producing areas to the place where the cleaning and weaving is done, greige goods to the place where the printing is done, printed fabric to the place where the finishing is done, finished fabric to the place where the bolting and distribution is done, to the retailer, and to the consumer.

Wage costs -- People in China are upwardly mobile and are demanding higher wages to improve their lifestyle. China produces most of the greige goods used in printing fabric, and thus must raise prices on those goods.

Regulatory costs are increasing dramatically, especially in the USA, at all levels of the distribution chain. Who do you think has to pay when a small business or shop has to hire extra help or pay a consultant just to fill out required government forms?

And so it goes. The price of cotton coming down is a small ray of sunshine, but it won't do much to bring down the price of fabric, and it may even cause shortages that will continue to drive prices up.