Mills in China's Shandong Province have aggressively moved to acquire new crop cotton. On Sunday, October 14, Weiqiao Textile, China's largest cotton spinner, raised its cotton procurement price to 13,800 yuan per ton for T229 and 13,600 yuan for T328. These prices are up 400 yuan per ton from just three days ago and up 800 yuan from a week ago; and in U.S. cents per pound, prices are now up the equivalent of 4.8 U.S. cents per pound from a week ago. The sharp deterioration in the quality of Shandong new crop cotton that was exposed to excessive rain over the holiday week led to new interest in Xinjiang new crop. Some mills have purchased Xinjiang new crop T328 cotton at 14,000 yuan per ton, delivered the mill. The excellent quality of the Xinjiang crop is the motivation to pay a premium to local cotton. Mills in Hebei Province have also turned active buyers of the available T328 and better grades from the 2007 crop.