US imports of textiles and clothing increased in value by 4.9% in 2018 following a 1.2% rise in 2017 but they remained below the peak they reached in 2015. In volume terms, imports rose by 5.9% in 2018 and reached a record high. Within the 2018 total, imports of yarns shot up by 17.1% in volume terms to their third highest level on record while imports of fabrics, made-up textiles and apparel all reached record highs, having increased by 8.5%, 6.6% and 2.8% respectively. As a result of these trends, apparel continued to account for the biggest share of total imports. However, this share was down to 40.6%, which represented its lowest level in several years. By contrast, the share of yarns rose to 5.2%, which represented its highest level since 2008. The share of fabrics rose to 19.4%o, which represented its second highest level since 2004, and the share of made-up textiles rose to 34.8%, which represented a record high. In terms of fibre type, man-made fibre apparel accounted for the largest share of US apparel imports in 2018 for the fifth consecutive year. In fact, the share of man-made fibre apparel was up for the 12th consecutive year-from 36.2% in 2006 to 56.8% in 2018-as man-made fibre prices remained competitive with cotton fibre prices. Furthermore, man-made fibre products continued to dominate US textile and apparel imports as a whole with a share of 70.1%-which was up for the tenth consecutive year. The average price of US textile and clothing imports fell in 2018 for the seventh year in succession to a record low of US$1.62 per sme-which was 0.9% less than in 2017. The fall in 2018 reflected primarily a decline in the average price of imports from China, although there were also notable falls in the average prices of imports from India and Mexico. The USA's biggest textile and clothing supplying country in 2018 was, by far, China. Furthermore, US textile and clothing imports from China were up by 4.8% in value and by 6.7% in volume. As a result, the share of US textile and clothing imports which came from China rose in volume terms from 48.9% to a record high of 49.3%-although it was down slightly in terms of value, from 36.6% to 36.5%. Of the other nine supplying countries which ranked among the leading ten, Cambodia and Italy gained share in the US import market as imports from both countries rose at faster rates in value and volume than imports from all sources. Imports from Bangladesh, India and Vietnam also rose in value and volume although the rises were similar to the increases in imports from all sources and, as a result, the shares of US imports which came from these three countries remained fairly static in value and volume terms. Elsewhere, imports from Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico and Pakistan either rose at slower rates than imports from all sources or declined in value and volume terms and, as a result, all four countries suffered losses of share in the US import market in value and volume terms.
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