USA witnessed an increase in apparel imports both in values and volumes during January to May 2018 period. The largest apparel importer in the world was up by 2.54 per cent in value of import while volumes upped by 1.55 per cent on Y-o-Y basis.
The data has recently been released by OTEXA and is further analysed by Apparel Resources.
USA imported 10706.76 million square meter of apparels in the said period as against 10503.68 million square meter of apparels in the correspondent period last year. The country spent US $ 31.44 billion on the imported apparels in the review period this year.
Cotton apparels continued strengthening their demand in the USA’s clothing market as suggested by the data. Cotton apparels import was worth US $ 15.34 billion followed by MMF apparels which stood at US $ 14.66 billion during the review period.
Further, China dipped both in values (2.41%) and volumes (0.93%) of its apparel exports to the USA after a long time. The country is also losing the share in value terms in the USA market as the trade war between both the countries is surely impacting the imports into USA from China.
China came down from 30.17 per cent in Q1 ’18 to 28.94 per cent in the first 4 months of 2018 and in Jan.-May period the share remained as low as 28.85 per cent which shows the China is significantly losing its biggest market.
Markedly, apparel shipment from Vietnam to the USA fetched US $ 4.75 billion with a stellar surge of 6.11 per cent on the yearly note. The growth percentage was the highest among top 5 apparel exporting destinations to the USA.
Bangladesh remained positive in its apparel exports to the United States as the apparel shipment was valued at US $ 2.22 billion as against US $ 2.14 billion in the same period a year before. However, to gain more value, the exporters in Bangladesh reduced their price margins and grabbed large order volumes throughout the period.
India, on the other hand, capitalised on the Rupee depreciation against dollar and posted solid value-wise growth (4.81%) in the said period which is, by far, the best figure for the country in 2018. India exported apparels to the USA worth US $ 1.783 billion in the review period and sharply inching closer to Indonesia to dethrone it from the 4th rank in the tally of top 5 apparel exporters to the USA as Indonesia is showing no sign of recovery in its apparel exports.
In the mentioned period, Indonesia plummeted both in values and volumes of exports by 1.67 per cent and 5.31 per cent respectively. As per Apparel Resources’ forecast, India would surpass Indonesia by the end of 2018 to become the 4th largest apparel exporter to the USA after China, Vietnam and Bangladesh.
