The OTEXA has published the data on United States’ apparel imports for the period of January-July 2023. We have calculated the year-on-year progress of the USA’s overall apparel imports from the world.
As per the published data, USA’s apparel import from the world declined by 22.28%, i.e. to US$ 45.74 billion in January-July 2023 from US$ 58.86 billion in January-July 2022. If we look at the volume wise data measured in Square Meter Equivalent (SME), in January-July 2023, USA’s import from the world slowed down by 27.99 % to 14.03 billion SME from 19.48 billion during the first seven months of 2022.
As per data, export from all the top supplying countries to USA have significantly decline in terms of both value and volume in the mentioned period. During this time, USA’s import from Bangladesh dropped by 19.82% in dollar values to US$ 4.56 billion in January-July 2023 from US$ 5.69 billion in January-July 2022. Also quantity wise, we have seen 29.03% decline, i.e. to 1.39 billion SME in January-July 2023 from 1.97 billion SME in January-July 2022. However, the share of Bangladesh in USA’s global apparel import has increased to about 10% in the mentioned period compared to 9.68% in Jan-Jul 2022.
Particularly in the month of July 2023, USA’s import from Bangladesh came back on the positive trend after 5 months of consecutive negative growth. Import in this month from Bangladesh grew by 7.80% (year-over-year), while import from all the major suppliers has declined.
USA’s 7-months apparel import from China saw decline of 28.75% in dollar terms (to US$ 9.12 billion in January-July 2023 from US$ 12.81 billion in January-July 2022) and 28.57 % in terms of quantity measured in SME i.e. to 4.79 billion SME from 6.71 billion. During this time, the share of import from China declined to 19.95% in from 21.76%.
USA’s import from Vietnam, the second largest source of apparel import, saw negative growth of 24.76% in dollar values to US$ 8.21 billion in Jan-Jul 2023 from US$ 10.91 billion Jan-Jul 2022. During the mentioned time, quantity-wise import also dropped by 29.31% (to 2.20 billion SME from 3.11billion SME).
Value-wise negative growth was observed in the case of other top sourcing countries such as Indonesia at 27.26%, India at 21.13%, Mexico at 8.69%, Cambodia at 30.10%, and Pakistan at 30.61%.
However, as far as unit price per SME (Square Meter Equivalent) is concerned, USA’s aggregate unit value of import from the world has increased by 7.94% in January-July 2023, and this increase from Bangladesh was 12.99%.
Despite all the global turmoil, runaway inflation and other uncertainties, the gain in growth is the sign of positive comeback for us. However, the overall business outlook is not pleasant as cost continues to soar, while advanced economies are taking measures to curb inflation which is ultimately limiting the spending power of consumers. So, in the coming months import may face further dips, but we need to keep exploring for more opportunities in USA market. We have already gained the top position in USA’s denim and cotton apparel import recently. Considering the recent investments in diversified and higher value added items, and our continued persuasion for innovation, we can certainly position ourselves as number one in many other product categories.
