Textile and Apparel Imports See Big Gains from Smaller Producers

Imports of textiles and apparel saw year-over-year declines from many traditional suppliers in January but significant increases from smaller producers, according to statistics from the Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel.

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Overall Imports. Textile and apparel imports totaled 6.83 billion square meter equivalents in January 2023, up 11.1 percent from December 2022 but down 20.7 percent from a year earlier. Textile imports totaled 4.67 billion SME, up 10.1 percent for the month but down 22.1 percent from the previous year, while apparel imports of 2.16 billion SME rose 12.5 percent from December but fell 17.5 percent from a year before.

Imports of textiles and apparel were 104.1 billion SME for the year ending in January, up 5.2 percent from a year earlier. Textile imports gained 6.4 percent to 73.5 billion SME while apparel imports rose 2.4 percent to 30.6 billion SME.

Source Countries. OTEXA has reported the following statistics on textile and apparel imports from major source countries for January 2023.