The United States posted a notable growth in its apparel imports during the January to February 2018 period. According to the data released by OTEXA, the country was up by 4.36 per cent in volumes while value-wise it marked 3.70 per cent surge.
The largest apparel importing country in the world imported 4,700.63 million SME (square meter equivalent) of apparels during the review period as against 4,504.42 million SME of apparels in the corresponding period of 2017.
The US spent US $ 13.589 billion (up 3.70 per cent) on the imported apparels whereas, in the same period of 2017, it imported apparels worth US $ 13.104 billion.
Markedly, unit values came down by 0.68 per cent to US $ 2.89 per square metre of apparels.
China has continued seeing an increase in volume-wise exports to the US while it is regaining significantly in values. After seeing a massive fall of 7.24 per cent in apparel exports value in January, China rose 0.97 per cent cumulatively in the first two months of 2018, driven by the high export share in February.
Vietnam secured its second rank after China as it exported apparels to the US worth US $ 2.073 billion (up 6%) as against US $ 1.956 billion in the same period of prior year. Vietnam’s growth is the best percentage-wise growth among the top 5 apparel exporters to the US.
On the other hand, apparel exports from India too gained substantially as it earned US $ 696.18 million from its apparel exports to the US market, marking an impressive growth of 4.92 per cent on the yearly note.
However, Bangladesh is witnessing growth in the US market but at a slower pace due to the low unit prices and high-volume exports. The country noted a growth of 1.13 per cent in values as it shipped apparels to the US worth US $ 937.71 million in the said period as against the export value of US $ 927.25 million in the corresponding period of 2017.