International Observation: Focus On The Decline In Demand Of US Textile And Clothing Imports From January To October

Since 2023, due to the pressure of global economic growth, the contraction of trade activities, the high inventory of brand names, the rising risk of international trade environment and other factors, the import demand of key global textile and clothing markets has shrunk. Among them, the decline of US textile and clothing imports to the world is particularly obvious. According to the data of the Textile and Clothing Office of the U.S. Department of Commerce, from January to October 2023, the United States imported $90.05 billion of textile and clothing from the world, a year-on-year decrease of 21.5%.

Affected by the weak demand for textile and clothing imports from the United States, China, Vietnam, India and Bangladesh, as the main source countries of textile and clothing imports from the United States, are all in a downturn in their exports to the United States. China is still the largest source of textile and clothing imports for the United States. From January to October 2023, the United States will import US $21.59 billion of textile and clothing from China, a year-on-year decrease of 25.0%, accounting for 24.0% of the market share, down 1.1 percentage points from the same period last year; Imports of textiles and clothing from Vietnam reached 13.18 billion US dollars, down 23.6% year on year, accounting for 14.6%, down 0.4 percentage points year on year; Imports of textiles and clothing from India reached US $7.71 billion, down 20.2% year on year, accounting for 8.6%, 0.1 percentage point higher than the same period last year.

It is worth noting that from January to October 2023, the United States imported US $6.51 billion of textiles and clothing from Bangladesh, a year-on-year decrease of 25.3%, the largest decline, accounting for 7.2%, a year-on-year decrease of 0.4 percentage points. The main reason is that since 2023, the energy supply in Bangladesh, such as natural gas, is insufficient, which leads to the failure of normal production of the factory, and production reduction and shutdown are common. In addition, Bangladesh garment workers demanded to raise the minimum wage and improve their treatment due to inflation and other reasons, and carried out a series of strikes and demonstrations, which also affected garment production capacity.

In the same period, the amount of textile and clothing imported by the United States from Mexico and Italy declined by 5.3% and 2.4% respectively year on year. On the one hand, it is closely related to Mexico's geographical advantages and its policy advantages as a member of the North American Free Trade Area; On the other hand, in recent years, American fashion enterprises are also continuously implementing the diversification of procurement sources to reduce various supply chain risks and growing geopolitical tensions. According to the calculation of the Industrial Economics Research Institute of the China Textile Industry Federation, the HHI index of clothing imports in the United States from January to October 2023 is 0.1013, significantly lower than the level of the same period last year, indicating that the sources of clothing imports in the United States are more diversified.

To sum up, although the decline of US import demand from the world is still deep at this stage, it has narrowed slightly compared with the previous stage. In addition, according to the data of the US Department of Commerce, influenced by the Thanksgiving Day and the "Black Friday" shopping festival in November, the retail sales of clothing and apparel in the US in November reached 26.12 billion US dollars, up 0.6% month on month and 1.3% year on year, showing some positive signs. If the US clothing retail market can still maintain the current trend of continuous repair, the decline of US textile and clothing imports to the world will further narrow in 2023, and the pressure on countries' exports to the US may slightly ease.