US textile & apparel imports down 3.89% in Q1 2017

China continued to be the largest supplier of textiles and clothing items to the US market. The US imports from China were valued at $7.848 billion, accounting for 36.35 per cent share of all textile and garment imports made by the US during January-March 2017, according to the Major Shippers Report, released by the US department of commerce.

Vietnam, India, Bangladesh and Indonesia were the next four top suppliers of textiles and garments to the US, with goods valued at $2.840 billion, $1.996 billion, $1.430 billion and $1.261 billion, respectively, during the three-month period, the report showed.

Segment-wise, among the top ten apparel suppliers to the US, only Vietnam, Mexico and El Salvador were able to increase their exports by 7.21 per cent, 4.76 per cent, and 1.14 per cent year-on-year, respectively. On the other hand, imports from Bangladesh, China and Cambodia declined by more than 5 per cent compared to the previous year.

In the non-apparel category, among the top ten suppliers, Mexico and India registered a positive growth of 7.77 per cent and 6.45 per cent year-on-year, respectively. While imports from Vietnam, China, Italy and Canada dropped by 49.03 per cent, 18.85 per cent, 11.23 per cent and 9.83 per cent to $75.196 million, $2.095 billion, $118.669 million and $167.532 million, respectively.

Of the total US textile and apparel imports of $24.288 billion during the period under review, cotton products were worth $11.245 billion, while man-made fibre products accounted for $11.770 billion, followed by $680.625 million of wool products and $592.812 million of products from silk and vegetable fibres.

In 2016, the US textile and apparel imports had declined by 6.44 per cent year-on-year to $104.722 billion, with apparel alone accounting for $80.713 billion. (RKS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India