Lifted by higher prices on women’s and children’s wear, retail apparel prices in the US rose a seasonally adjusted 1.1 per cent in January amid clearance sales. The January increase for apparel was the largest since February 2018. Raw material prices have shown stability.

Cotton prices may remain steady thanks to solid fundamentals. From fiber firms to apparel manufacturers, everyone has noted an easing off of raw material price inflation that cut into their bottom lines. They remain wary, however, of ongoing volatilities, such as tariffs and increases in related commodities.

Hanes Brands last year incurred input costs inflation. The company has now been able to integrate these increases into its price structure and will be able to recoup the costs and improve margins. For Unifi, the spike in polyester raw material costs in September and October 2018 and the resulting demand disruption created an even more challenging environment for its regional business and its performance missed expectations. External pressures in the regional business included elevated raw material costs and suppressed demand for certain textured and covered yarns. This created internal pressures to implement selling price increases that left Unifi less competitive with elevated inventory levels and resulted in weaker leverage of its cost structure.