Yarn and Greige That Haven't Moved in 90 Days: How Much Cash Is Sitting in Your Weaving Godown (₹)

How much cash is sitting in yarn and greige that hasn't moved in 90 days? As of 17 Oct 2026, in the assumed weaving unit below, ₹1.35 crore of its ₹4.67 crore stock is older than 90 days. At an assumed 10.5% cash-credit rate, that costs about ₹1.18 lakh a month in interest, and it carries about ₹28 lakh of write-down risk. That risk is real: cotton fell about 30% between 16 August and 16 November 2022, per CAI spot rates.

Last checked: 17 Oct 2026.

By the Mama Editorial Team, for owners of weaving and integrated spinning-weaving units from Surat and Bhiwandi to Erode and Ichalkaranji. Checked against Cotton Association of India (CAI) upcountry spot rates, the RBI policy resolution of 7 October 2026, Bank of India's lending-rate filing of the same date, and an ICAI Expert Advisory Committee opinion on inventory valuation. Every ₹ figure in the worked example is a labelled assumption.

Key takeaways

• Age yarn by count and lot, and greige by quality. A single "yarn stock" figure hides the one count that has not moved since the summer.
• The over-90-day stock costs you three ways: cash that is not working, interest on your cash-credit limit, and the gap between what you paid and what it will sell for now.
• In this example, interest is the smallest of the three. A year of interest on the aged stock is about ₹14 lakh. The one-time write-down risk is about ₹28 lakh.
• Cotton prices move in both directions, fast. CAI's Gujarat 29 mm spot rate went from ₹99,000 a candy on 16 August 2022 to ₹69,500 on 16 November 2022. On 16 October 2026 it stood at ₹68,300 for the new crop.
• The real risk sits in specialty yarn, order-specific greige and seconds. Commodity counts can usually be used or resold. A dobby sort for a cancelled order often cannot.
• Cameras show which bags and bales have not moved. Count, lot and book value come from the ERP or Tally. You need both lists side by side.

Why yarn and greige need their own ageing view

A weaving unit holds cash in two piles that look like "working stock": yarn in bags of cones, and greige waiting for folding, a processing house or a buyer. Yarn is always needed and greige is always about to be sold, which is why the old part of each pile goes unnoticed.

Yarn ages by count and lot. A unit running 40s combed warp and 30s carded weft may turn those in three weeks. The same godown can hold 60s slub bought for one sampling programme, or dyed yarn for a design the buyer dropped. Those lots sit behind the running stock and never come forward.

Greige ages by quality, meaning the sort: construction, width, weave. Running qualities such as poplin and cambric have many buyers. A dobby or sateen sort woven for one buyer has one buyer, and if that buyer delays or cancels, the rolls wait.

This is different from WIP. In a garment unit the cash sits in bundles between sewing operations and moves in days. In a weaving godown it sits in finished inputs and finished cloth that can wait for months.

What the market did to cotton: dated CAI spot rates

Yarn prices follow cotton, but not one for one. In January–May 2022, cotton rose about 53% while yarn rose only 21%, per an ICICIdirect research note of May 2022. Cotton is still the cleanest dated public price signal for the yarn you hold.

The Cotton Association of India publishes official upcountry spot rates for each trading day, in ₹ per candy and ₹ per quintal (CAI spot rates archive). From the rate pairs on its 16 October 2026 sheet, a candy works out to about 356 kg.

Sources: CAI daily spot-rate records for each date, read from the CAI spot-rates page on 17 October 2026, and the CAI upcountry spot-rate sheet of 16 October 2026.

Between July and October 2026 the market rose. Per CAI, the Gujarat 29 mm rate was up about 4% from 16 July to 16 October 2026. Yarn bought in July is not under water today on cotton alone.

The fall, when it comes, can be quick. In the 90 days to 16 November 2022, the same CAI rate dropped by about 30%.

The worked example: an assumed weaving unit

Assumptions (illustrative, not benchmarks). A weaving unit with its own yarn godown and greige warehouse. Stock is valued at cost from the ERP ageing report. The ages are days since the yarn lot was received or the greige roll was doffed. The unit funds stock from a cash-credit limit at an assumed all-in 10.5% a year.

Of ₹467 lakh in stock, ₹135 lakh, or 29%, has not moved in more than 90 days in this example.

What it costs to hold

On 7 October 2026 the RBI Monetary Policy Committee raised the repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.50% (RBI MPC resolution, 7 Oct 2026).

Bank of India moved its repo-based lending rate from 8.10% to 8.35% the same day, with its 2.85% mark-up unchanged (Bank of India filing to NSE/BSE, 7 Oct 2026). A cash-credit limit is priced at a benchmark like this plus a credit spread. The example assumes 10.5% all-in. Use the rate in your own sanction letter.

What it may not fetch

Under the accounting standard on inventories, stock is carried at "lower of cost and net realisable value". Net realisable value is defined in AS 2 as "the estimated selling price in the ordinary course of business less the estimated costs of completion and the estimated costs necessary to make the sale", as quoted in an ICAI Expert Advisory Committee opinion on net realisable value of inventory. The same opinion notes that raw material is written down below cost only when the finished goods it goes into are expected to sell below cost. The owner's question comes earlier than the balance sheet: which aged lots would fetch less than book value today?

The drops below are assumptions for this example. The 10% figure on commodity yarn is a modest case set against the CAI cotton fall of about 30% in late 2022.

The write-down risk is about twice the yearly interest. ₹27.8 lakh one-time against ₹14.2 lakh a year, in this example.

About four-fifths of the exposure sits outside commodity stock. Specialty yarn, order-specific greige and seconds hold ₹22.5 lakh of the ₹27.8 lakh (81%). The bigger leak is stock with no ready buyer at all.

Clearing half of the aged pile releases about ₹67.5 lakh once. That is cash back on the limit, not profit, and it stops roughly ₹59,000 a month of interest.

Run your own buckets through the stock ageing calculator. For the wider picture across WIP, aged stock and packed goods, see how much working capital is stuck on your factory floor.

How to build your 90-day list in one afternoon

1. Print ageing by lot, not by item. In Tally or the ERP, yarn by count, mill and lot number. Greige by quality and roll or bale number. Bucket edges at 90 and 180 days.
2. Walk the godown with the list and find the oldest ten lots. Put a dated sticker on each; any sticker still in place two weeks later marks stock that has not moved.
3. Give every aged lot an owner and a decision. Use in weft next, sell back, job-weave into a running sort, sell as stock lot, or hold for a named order.
4. Measure the seconds pile monthly. Seconds growing faster than output point to a loom or yarn problem.
5. Repeat monthly. If the same lots appear three months running, the decision is being avoided.

If the unit also spins, the yarn ageing list sits next to the leaks inside a spinning mill, such as stopped frames and comber noil.

What usually shrinks the pile

• Buy specialty yarn against an order, not against a sample. The slub and dyed lots in the example are where most of the yarn exposure sits.
• Plan weft around old lots. Where count and quality allow, the oldest commodity lot goes on the looms first.
• Weave order-specific sorts to the confirmed quantity, not an extra "in case" roll.
• Sell seconds and fents on a calendar, every month, not when the corner overflows.
• Read your sanction letter. Check how your bank treats aged stock in the monthly stock statement and drawing power, and keep the ageing report consistent with it.

What cameras can and cannot tell you here

What cameras can show: - Which stacks have not moved. A bag stack or bale in a marked bay, untouched for 60 days, is visible on video whatever the register says. - Where overflow lives. Greige in aisles, rolls waiting at the folding table, seconds spilling out of their corner. - Loom activity. Whether the looms that should be eating the old weft were running at all. For powerloom sheds, see how many looms actually ran.

What cameras cannot show: - Count, lot, shade or quality. A bag of 30s and a bag of 40s look the same from the ceiling. That needs the ERP, a barcode or a label scan. - Book value or age by lot. Video knows where something sat and for how long, not what it cost. - Market price. No camera knows what a lot would fetch today. That comes from the market and your agents. - The decision. Whether to sell, re-plan or hold stays with the owner.

The useful combination is dwell from video and identity from the ERP. Where the ERP's aged lots and the camera's untouched stacks agree, act this month. Where they disagree, the stock is not where the books think it is.

Where Mama fits

Mama reads the video from a factory's existing cameras, or from cameras added where coverage is missing, and each morning sends the owner a short plain-language note on where hours and money leaked the day before. In a weaving unit that means which godown zones hold stacks and bales that have not moved, where greige overflow is building up, and which looms stood idle. It watches machines, stacks and zones, not individual people. To get a read on your own godown and loom shed, leave an email or phone in the form below and Mama will get back to you with the points worth watching and a camera plan to cover them.

FAQ

Why 90 days and not 60 or 180? Ninety days is long enough for a commodity count to have turned at least once. Use 60 days if your running counts turn in three weeks. Keep the 180-day bucket either way, because that is where most of the write-down risk sits.

Is old yarn worth less than new yarn? Not always. Cotton yarn does not spoil quickly in a dry godown, and in a rising market an old lot can be worth more than its cost. Its value falls when the market falls, when the count or shade is no longer used, or when the cones are damaged in storage.

Should I value aged stock below cost in my books? That is your CA's call under AS 2, which carries inventory at the lower of cost and net realisable value. The owner's version of the question comes first: which lots would sell below cost today, and what you will do with them this month.

Can cameras read the yarn count or lot number on bags? Not from a normal ceiling or wall mount. Cameras show which stacks and bales have not moved and for how long. Count, lot and value come from the ERP or a label scan.