Last day, Bangladesh has whitewashed the England cricket team 3-0 in the T20 series at Sher-E-Bangla National Stadium Cricket in Dhaka under the captaincy of Shakib Al Hasan. I would like to extend my heartiest congratulation to the Bangladesh Cricket team for their victory against current T20 world champion England especially Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Liton Das for their outstanding performance which brought this victory. We are proud of such a performance by the team Tiger and we hope that they will continue the spirit of victory in the coming days.
Last month I sent you the statistics and few analyses on USA’s apparel import for 2022. Today I am sharing the latest data released by the Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA); for the first month of 2023. I am also sharing some analyses on USA’s overall import as well as from the top sourcing countries.
According to OTEXA, USA’s apparel import from Bangladesh increased by 15.43% in January 2023 compared to January 2022, though USA’s import from the world has declined by 3.44% year-on-year. USA imported US$ 867.64 million worth of clothing from Bangladesh during the mentioned month.
Among the top ten apparel-sourcing countries the growth of Bangladesh was the highest. With an 11.94% share of the USA’s total RMG import Bangladesh remains the 3rd largest apparel import source for the USA.
On the other hand, USA’s import from the top sourcing country China has declined by 24.61% year-over-year followed by Vietnam which is also the second largest apparel import source for the USA. USA’s imports from Vietnam declined by 0.5% year-over-year. In January 2023, USA imported US$ 1.44 billion and US$ 1.26 billion worth of clothing from China and Vietnam respectively.
Indonesia and India, the 4th and 5th largest clothing import source of the USA, have shown 4.73% and 9.77% years-over-year growth respectively. USA’s import from Indonesia and India was US$ 453.84 million and US$ 485 million respectively in January 2023.
On the other hand, imports from the other top sourcing countries such as Mexico, Honduras, Cambodia, and Pakistan declined by 1.04%, 20.81%, 12.92%, and 3.55% respectively.
If we look at the statistics, the import of USA from Bangladesh grew by 15.45% in value terms, but in volume-wise Square Meter Equivalent (SME), it declined by 5.60%. The unit price per SME has increased to USD 3.26 in 2023 from USD 2.66 in 2022. However, the unit price has increased for two reasons. Firstly, the global inflation which has increased the price of fuel, freight and other commodities. As a result, our cost of production has also increased significantly. Secondly, in recent years, we have got significant investments in high-value-added products. Now-a-days we are manufacturing products at higher FOB prices particularly jackets, activewear and suits which also increased our unit price.
The US economy is featuring a mixed scenario where their economy is predicted to have a slowdown on the one hand, while predictions of global think tank like McKinsey&Co shows promising growth outlook. As we have secured a significant position in the US market already, our next decade strategy should be to explore the untapped product categories. Let us also put efforts to penetrate higher priced segments and new customers who are yet to source from Bangladesh. Above all, let us keep updated on the market dynamics. Intellectual Property Rights protection and manufacturing counterfeit products has become an issue requiring more attention of all of us.
