US textile & apparel imports up 1.24% in Jan-Nov '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 $35.987 billion, accounting for 36.48 per cent share of all textile and garment imports made by the US during January-November 2017, according to the Major Shippers Report (November 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 $11.318 billion, $6.921 billion, $4.923 billion and $4.445 billion, respectively, during the eleven-month period, the report showed.

Segment-wise, among the top ten apparel suppliers to the US, only Vietnam, India, Mexico and Sri Lanka were able to increase their exports by 7.42 per cent, 2.19 per cent, 5.84 per cent and 0.26 per cent year-on-year, respectively. On the other hand, imports from Bangladesh registered a decline of 4.30 per cent compared to the same period of the previous year.

In the non-apparel category, among the top ten suppliers, Mexico, Turkey and Vietnam registered a double-digit growth of 12.54 per cent, 15.10 per cent and 16.66 per cent year-on-year, respectively. Imports from Canada, Korea, and Taiwan dropped by 4.88 per cent, 3.21 per cent and 3.35 per cent to $643.159 million, $587.306 million and $418.553 million, respectively.

Of the total US textile and apparel imports of $98.375 billion during the period under review, cotton products were worth $42.527 billion, while man-made fibre products accounted for $50.507 billion, followed by $3.752 billion of wool products and $1.587 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