Textile and Apparel Imports Down as Most Major Shippers See Declines

The Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel reports that monthly imports of cotton, wool, manmade fiber, silk blend, and non-cotton vegetable fiber textile and apparel products totaled 5.56 billion square meter equivalents in December, down 0.4 percent from November but up 12.1 percent from December 2017. Textile imports totaled 3.47 billion SME, down 2.5 percent for the month but up 13.4 percent from the previous year, while apparel imports of 2.10 billion SME were up 4.0 percent from November and 10.2 percent from a year before.

Total imports for 2018 were 68.6 billion SME, up 5.9 percent from the previous year, as textile imports gained 8.1 percent to 40.8 billion SME and apparel imports rose 2.8 percent to 27.8 billion SME.

OTEXA has reported the following statistics on textile and apparel imports from major source countries for December 2018.

                       

	SME	Monthly change %	Annual change %	$ Value	Monthly change %	Annual change %
China	2.88 billion	+0.7	+18.2	$3.09 billion	-0.8	+13.0
India	422.6 million	-12.9	+12.6	$536.5 million	-9.0	+14.9
Vietnam	331.5 million	+0.3	-14.0	$896.9 billion	+0.02	+3.4
Pakistan	206.1 million	-7.1	+2.5	$218.5 million	-10.5	+11.1
Mexico	197.0 million	-7.3	+8.4	$328.1 million	-12.8	-6.7
Korea	171.3 million	+8.1	+31.3	$75.0 million	-2.5	+13.9
Bangladesh	167.1 million	+14.0	+16.5	$405.3 million	+5.5	+16.1
Indonesia	106.9 million	-3.3	-4.6	$329.1 million	-2.9	+6.7
Honduras	85.6 million	-4.6	+27.2	$225.7 million	-2.9	+40.8
Turkey	80.8 million	+19.7	+15.6	$133.2 million	-7.9	+8.4
Canada	70.5 million	-16.8	-12.0	$90.5 million	-17.2	-4.0
Taiwan	65.7 million	-16.5	+13.5	$45.0 million	-7.8	-7.3

For more information on trade-related issues affecting textiles and apparel, please contact Elise Shibles at (415) 490-1403.

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