Textile and apparel imports were down 4.9 percent from July and 5.5 percent from August 2022 totalling 8.62 billion square meter equivalents (SME) in August. Textile imports were 6.15 billion SME, easing by 7.7 percent for the month but up 1.3 percent from August 2022. The apparel imports however were up by 2.9 percent from July but massively declined by 19.1 percent from August 2022 and totalled 2.47 billion SMEs.
In the first eight months of this year, the imports of textiles and apparel were 62.5 billion SMEs declining by 17.9 percent from a year earlier. Textile imports were 46.0 billion SME, down 14.2 percent, while apparel imports fell 26.8 percent to 16.5 billion SME. For the year ending in August, total imports declined by 17.3 percent to 92.1 million SMEs. Textile imports declined by 14.1 percent to 67.1 billion SMEs while apparel imports declined during the same period by 24.8 percent to 25.0 billion SMEs.
In August China exported 3.16 billion SMEs to the United States with a monthly increase of 9.7 percent. India posted a 3.8 percent increase with exports of 782.5 million. Vietnam exported 534 million SMEs with a nominal monthly increase of 1 percent. Pakistan’s textile and apparel exports declined by 2 percent on a monthly basis to 258.7 million SMEs and that of Bangladesh decreased by 12.5 percent to 213.4 SMEs.
