US textile & apparel imports stable in Jan-Sept '17

China continued to be the largest supplier of textiles and clothing items to the US market. The US imports from China were valued at $29.009 billion, accounting for 36.47 per cent share of all textile and garment imports made by the US during January-September 2017, according to the Major Shippers Report (September 2017 data), 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 $9.165 billion, $5.720 billion, $4.109 billion and $3.637 billion, respectively, during the nine-month period, the report showed.

Segment-wise, among the top ten apparel suppliers to the US, only Vietnam, India and Mexico were able to increase their exports by 6.50 per cent, 0.92 per cent and 6.00 per cent year-on-year, respectively. On the other hand, imports from Bangladesh registered a decline of 5.59 per cent compared to the same period of the previous year.

In the non-apparel category, among the top ten suppliers, Mexico and Turkey registered a growth of 11.50 per cent and 13.26 per cent year-on-year, respectively. Imports from Canada, Korea, Italy and Taiwan dropped by 6.48 per cent, 2.19 per cent, 0.07 per cent and 1.85 per cent to $517.386 million, $486.014 million, $395.393 million and $346.859 million, respectively.

Of the total US textile and apparel imports of $79.816 billion during the period under review, cotton products were worth $34.625 billion, while man-made fibre products accounted for $40.852 billion, followed by $2.964 billion of wool products and $1.374 billion 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