According to OTEXA, USA imported US $ 380.789 million worth of apparels from India in March 2020, exporting US $ 24.25 million worth of fewer garments compared to March 2019. This is a straight decline of 6 per cent on Y-o-Y basis.
Volume-wise, India fell by 8.20 per cent and shipped 105.67 million SME garments to USA in March this year.
Interestingly, owing to USA’s fall in its overall RMG import – US $ 5.18 billion – by 15 per cent in March, India’s share increased from 6.66 per cent in March ’19 to 7.35 per cent in March ’20.
Cumulatively in Q1 ’20, India decreased by 1.50 per cent and shipped garments to USA valued at US $ 1.14 billion. The decline noted in volume-terms was 0.83 per cent.
The figures suggest that lockdown, enforced by the Indian Government in March, impacted the orders that were scheduled to be shipped in the last week of March and that’s the reason behind downfall in Q1 ’20.
As far as product categories are concerned, just one product category (T-shirt) earned revenues more than US $ 200 million in Jan.-Mar. ’20 and valued at US $ 260.35 million, with a yearly decline of 9.50 per cent.
Three products (trouser, ladies blouses and dresses) saw export revenue in US $ 100 million to US $ 200 million bracket. Shipment of trousers, worth US $ 121.47 million, fell by 9.81 per cent, while blouses (down 2.59 per cent) and dresses (up 15.72 per cent) clocked US $ 175.49 million and US $ 180.74 million, respectively.
Three product categories (kidswear, men’s shirts and undergarments) got into US $ 50 million – US $ 100 million bracket. Men’s shirts and undergarments proved to be falling export categories for India, while kidswear continued to see growth in its export value to USA.
Export revenue clocked by kidswear was US $ 88.15 million, marking a robust 26.84 per cent surge. On the other hand, the export of men’s shirt to USA in the first quarter of 2020 plunged by 7.41 per cent to US $ 58.51 million and undergarment category tumbled by 13.25 per cent to earn US $ 68.70 million.
On a positive note, a good potential was shown by jackets & blazers and ladies skirts under revenue bracket below US $ 50 million. Jackets & blazers clocked US $ 27 million revenue from its shipment to USA from India, noting a solid growth of 33.74 per cent on Y-o-Y basis.
Ladies skirts too steered its growth by 16 per cent to accommodate US $ 20 million revenue. The growth of ladies skirts, kidswear, ladies dresses and jackets has become even more significant because USA tumbled in its import of all these categories during Q1 ’20.