Small producers make an inroad in the US textile clothing market

Imports of textiles and apparel in January saw year-over-year saw hefty gains from small producers’ led by Malaysia with an increase of 496.4 percent followed by Italy with an increase of 157.6, Indonesia with 19.7 percent, Mexico with 13.4, and Turkey with 6.7 percent.

These countries grabbed the share of larger producers as India’s export declined by 20.9 percent on a year-on-year basis, China lost 10 percent of its market, Bangladesh 7.8 percent, Vietnam 7 percent, and Pakistan lost 5.8 percent of the US market.

Statistics released by the Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel reveal that 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 SMEs, up 10.1 percent for the month but down 22.1 percent from the previous year, while apparel imports of 2.16 billion SMEs 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 SMEs while apparel imports rose 2.4 percent to 30.6 billion SMEs.

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