Trends in US textile and clothing imports

ABSTRACT

US imports of textiles and clothing rose in value by 27.2% in 2021. As a result, they reached a record high, despite the fact that the rise had followed a 19.3% decline in the previous year—which, itself, reflected the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In volume terms, imports surged by 39.4%, also to a record high. Within the 2021 total, imports of fabrics soared by 90.7% in volume terms to a record high while imports of apparel and made-up textiles also reached record highs, having increased by 27.4% and 23.4% respectively. Imports of yarns, meanwhile, rose by 13.9% but remained below the levels seen in 2018 and 2019. As a result, the share of fabrics in total imports rose from 22.4% to 30.6%, which represented its highest level on record. But the share of apparel fell to 31.2%, which represented its lowest level in several years, and the share of made-up textiles fell to 34.5%. However, made-up textiles continued to account for the largest share of total imports, having surpassed apparel in the previous year. The share of yarns, meanwhile, fell to just 3.7%. In terms of fibre type, man-made fibre products continued to dominate US textile and apparel imports as a whole with a share of 75.8%—which was up for the 13th consecutive year. Furthermore, in apparel alone, man-made fibre products accounted for the largest share of US imports in 2021 for the eighth consecutive year. However, their share fell for the first time in 15 years—from 57.6% in 2020 to 56.2% in 2021. The average price of US textile and clothing imports fell in 2021 for the tenth year in succession to a record low of US$1.21 per sme—which was 8.8% lower than in 2020. The fall in 2021 reflected, a decline in the average price of textile imports as the average price of clothing imports remained unchanged. The USA’s biggest textile and clothing supplying country in 2021 was, by far, China. Furthermore, US textile and clothing imports from China rose by 25.1% in value and 24.3% in volume. However, these increases were slower than growth in imports from all sources and, as a result, the share of US textile and clothing imports which came from China fell in value terms from 28.2% to 27.7% and in volume terms from 46.5% to 41.5%. Of the other nine supplying countries which ranked among the leading ten, there were double and triple digit increases in imports from all nine countries in value and volume terms. The fastest growth in value terms was in US textile and clothing imports from Honduras, followed by India, Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Mexico but growth was more moderate in the case of imports from Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam. © Textiles Intelligence Limited 2022.