With most people returning to work, the demand for textile and apparel in the US turned positive for the first time in the month of July. Latest data from CCF Group shows, import of textile and apparels by the US increased by 31.1 per cent in July though it declined by 18.8 per cent on a year-on-year basis. Of the total textile and apparel imports, the volume of imports from China increased 37.1 per cent even though it declined by 13.9 per cent on a year-on-year basis. For January-June period, the cumulative textile and apparel imports by US declined 19.9 per cent to 26.86 billion sq. mt. Of this, the volume of imports from China declined 26.8 per cent to 10.83 per cent year-on-year.

Value of imports up 38.9 per cent…

The value of US textile and apparel imports in June increased 38.9 per cent month-on-month. However, this value declined by 37.5 per cent year-on-year basis to reach $5.7 billion. The value of imports from China increased by 40.7 per cent month-on-month but declined by 40.2 per cent year-on-year to reach $1.9 billion. During the January-June period declined the total textile and apparel imports by the US declined by 27.9 per cent year-on-year to 38.63 billion sq. mt. From this, volume of imports from China declined by 43.1 per cent to 9.6 billion square meters.

By value, US apparel imports value in Jun declined by 42.8 per cent year-on-year to $3.97 billion, but these imports increased by 49.3 per cent month-on-month basis in June. Imports from China declined by 48.4 per cent on a year-on-year basis but increased by 59.7 per cent month-on-month to reach $1.16 billion. During the Jan-June period, cumulative US textile and apparel imports declined by 27.9 per cent year-on-year to 27.89 billion sq. mt. The volume of imports from China also declined 49 per cent year-on-year to 5.77 billion sq. mt.

…but import volume down 34.3 per cent

Though the volume of US’ textile and apparel imports shrank by 34.3 per cent year-on-year it increased by 57.8 percent month-on-month in June. The volume of textiles and garments imported from China declined by 32.5 per cent year-on-year, but increased by 65.4 cent to 0.65 billion sq. mt. During the cumulative period of January-June, textile and apparel imports by the US declined by 27.9 per cent year-on-year to 9.67 billion sq. mt. The volume of imports from China declined 38.3 per cent to 3.06 billion sq. mt.

These statistics prove that despite the clarion call to ban imports from China, US fashion companies continue to look at the country as an important apparel sourcing base. Though these companies imported more apparels from Vietnam from February-April 2020, China quickly regained its position as top apparel supplier to the US.