China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reports that July cotton yarn output increased to 1,337,527 tons, while January through July cumulative cotton yarn production grew 21.22 percent to 8,668,835 tons. Cotton-blend yarn output expanded 14 percent to 1,478,404 tons. These statistics, of course, continue to raise more questions than they answer. The January through July yarn data would imply annualized cotton consumption of approximately 77.8 million 480-pound bales. Such a number is not realistic, but the NBS data, combined with fixed asset investment, does suggest cotton use is larger than currently estimated.