Trends in US textile and clothing imports

摘要

US imports of textiles and clothing edged up in value by 0.3% in 2019 following a 4.9% rise in 2018 but they remained below the peak they reached in 2015.In volume terms,imports rose by 1.9% in 2019 and reached a record high.Within the 2019 total,imports of made-up textiles rose by 8.9% in volume terms to a record high but imports of yarns,fabrics and apparel all declined-by 1.0%,5.0% and 0.3% respectively.Apparel continued to account for the largest share of total imports but its share was down to 39.7%,which represented its lowest level in several years.There were also declines in the share of yarns,to 5.0%,and in the share of fabrics,to 18.1%.But the share of made-up textiles rose to 37.1%,which represented a record high.In terms of fibre type,man-made fibre apparel accounted for the largest share of US apparel imports in 2019 for the sixth consecutive year.In fact,its share was up for the 13th consecutive year-from 36.2% in 2006 to 57.4% in 2019-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 70.9%-which was up for the 11th consecutive year.The average price of US textile and clothing imports fell in 2019 for the eighth year in succession to a record low of US$1.59 per sme-which was 1.6% less than in 2018.The fall in 2019 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 2019 was,by far,China.However,UStextile and clothing imports from China plunged by 10.2% in value and were down by 2.8% in volume.As a result,the share of US textile and clothing imports which came from China fell in value terms from 36.6% to 32.8% and in volume terms from 49.3% to 47.0%.Of the other nine supplying countries which ranked among the leading ten,as many as six-namely Cambodia,Honduras,India,Italy,Pakistan and Vietnam-gained share in the US import market in value and volume terms as imports from all six rose at faster rates in value and volume than imports from all sources.Imports from Bangladesh also rose faster than imports from all sources in value terms but in terms of volume they were up only marginally.Imports from Indonesia and Mexico,meanwhile,rose only slowly or declined in value and volume terms.