US textile & apparel imports down 1% in Jan-August '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 $24.986 billion, accounting for 36.37 per cent share of all textile and garment imports made by the US during January-August 2017, according to the Major Shippers Report (August 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 $8.078 billion, $5.152 billion, $3.663 billion and $3.240 billion, respectively, during the eight-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 5.64 per cent, 0.94 per cent and 5.29 per cent year-on-year, respectively. On the other hand, imports from Bangladesh, China and Indonesia registered a decline of more than 4 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 11.22 per cent and 11.36 per cent year-on-year, respectively. Imports from Canada, Korea and Taiwan dropped by 6.85 per cent, 3.34 per cent, and 2.51 per cent to $459.565 million, $435.420 million, and $298.089 million, respectively.

Of the total US textile and apparel imports of $70.052 billion during the period under review, cotton products were worth $30.705 billion, while man-made fibre products accounted for $35.593 billion, followed by $2.474 billion of wool products and $1.278 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