The global stock of cotton for 2017-18, excluding those from China, could be below the USDA estimate because of damage to the crop in the US. US farm department expected the global cotton inventory to be at 11.9 mln bales during the period. Around 1.5 mln bales of cotton were damaged due to recent storms in the US, and the production is likely to be around 20 mln bales in 2017-18. If the damages are taken into account, the total production in the US will be up 16% on year in 2017-18, and not 27% as predicted by USDA. Production of cotton in Australia was also revised to 4.4 mln bales for 2017-18 from the June forecast of 5 mln bales.