Textile & garment imports from US rise

16 Jul '08

3 min read

According to recently released customs data, during January to May 2008, China imported textile and apparel worth US $259.05 million from the US, representing year-on-year increase of 15.84 percent.

Among them, textile imports amounted to $244.39 million, a growth of 13 percent, accounting for about 94.34 percent of total imports from the US. Apparel imports fetched $14.66 million, accounting for about 5.66 percent of total imports.

From the commodity structure, during the first five months, China's total imports of manufactured products from the US registered $154.84 million, representing a rise of 8.06 percent over the same period last year. These accounted for 59.77 percent of total imports from the US, making it the top import category.

Among them, non-woven fabrics formed a proportion as high as 36.02 percent. Its import volume reduced 5.99 percent from the same time last year, but average price surged 6.21 percent.

In the first five months, volume and value of carpet imports climbed, marking a good trend. Its import value hiked 109.11 percent at year-on-year level, and average price promoted 76.69 percent.

Yarn and thread products from the US form the second largest category of China's imports, at 19,472 tons in this period. This recorded a boost of 47.6 percent as against the same time of 2007. Total import value amounted to $55.42 million, an increase of 40.23 percent, accounting for 21.39 percent of total imports from the US.

Among them, chemical fiber yarn took a share of 14.25 percent. Overall yarn import prices in the first five months fell 4.99 percent, mainly due to the slide of 5.55 percent in chemical fiber yarn rates. Average import prices of cotton yarn, wool and animal hair yarn increased by 22.61 percent and 38.54 percent, respectively.

During the period, country's fabric imports from the US scored $34.13 million, augmenting only 2 percent from the same time of 2007. Chemical fiber woven fabrics and other fabrics were main sub-categories, forming a share of 6.63 percent, 5.40 percent, respectively.

Among all sub-categories, cotton fabric imports substantially reduced, setting a year-on-year decline of 72.9 percent, and import value also plunged 55.85 percent from the same period last year. However, average import price increased 61.93 percent year-on-year basis. The price of silk woven fabric imports also lowered 34.29 percent from the same period last year.

In clothing sector, overall imports of leather and wool apparel fell in the first five months, but import price gained, significantly. Knitted apparel imports expanded both in volume and price.

In the first five months, the year-on-year increase in import prices of woven garments was as high as 587.08 percent, with that in chemical fiber-woven garments rising 938.32 percent.

Wool and leather clothing rates went up 292.78 percent; of which, leather clothing grew 310.07 percent. Import price of knitted apparel promoted 49.66 percent from the same period last year. Of these, cotton knit clothing and wool knitted garments marked rise of over 70 percent, but that of chemical fiber knitted garments plummeted by 12.74 percent.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - China

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