USA has slumped 11 per cent in its apparel import values in February ’20, according to OTEXA.
The country imported US $ 5.91 billion worth of apparels in February, 2020 as against US $ 6.66 billion in the same month of the prior year.
In volume-terms, USA fell by 12 per cent and the import stood at 2 billion SME.
As expected, China’s RMG export to USA nosedived drastically by 46 per cent and 36 per cent in values and volumes, respectively.
China exported 579.68 million SME of garments to USA in February which is worth US $ 1.08 billion. Markedly, the export of China in value-terms is down by almost half as in February 2019, the shipment valued at US $ 2.01 billion.
The fall was already predicted by the industry stakeholders as China, the epicentre of Coronavirus pandemic, closed down its industries and held its shipments till February end.
Volumes from Vietnam saw marginal surge of 0.3 per cent and shipment of RMG to USA valued at US $ 1.06 billion, marking 2.80 per cent growth. The fall in China’s export values and the decent, if not great, surge of Vietnam has allowed it to almost equal its values to former.
Bangladesh has maintained its positive performance both in values and SME terms. The country shipped US $ 528.47 million worth of RMG to USA in February ’20, noting 4.80 per cent growth on Y-o-Y basis, while volumes – 189.73 million SME – picked up by 7.30 per cent.
India too noted growth in both values (US $ 389.82 million) and volumes (11.28 million SME) by 4.70 per cent and 7.60 per cent, respectively, in its RMG export to USA in February.
The apparel import of USA fell majorly because of China in February but COVID-19 pandemic escalated in other manufacturing destinations as well as USA itself from March onwards, which forced buyers to halt their production, forced Governments to impose lockdown and furlough the workers. So, it’s safe to predict that USA apparel import will continue with negative trend even in March and in subsequent months.