Compared to the same month last year, the US saw a 17% spike in apparel shipment volumes.

In value terms, imports were up 23% to US$8.1bn on the prior-year period. It is, however, difficult to draw comparisons on a year-on-year basis due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and factory closures worldwide which skewed last year’s results.

In terms of individual supplier countries, nine of the top ten recorded year-on-year increases in apparel import volumes during August:

• Pakistan booked the largest increase in shipments when compared to last year’s volumes by 32.2% at 73 MM2
• Vietnam, the second-largest clothing supplier to the US saw an increase of 22.31% year-on-year to 426 MM2.
• Indonesia saw the next largest rise of 22.3% to 99 MM2
• India’s shipments grew to 98 MM2, an increase of 19.8%.
• Cambodia booked an 18% rise in shipment volumes at 128 MM2.
• China, the largest supplier of clothing to the US currently saw shipment volumes grow by 15.6% to 1,201 MM2, more than double the volume coming out of neighbouring Vietnam.
• Bangladesh, the third-largest supplier to the US, saw shipments grow by 12.5% year-on-year to 221 MM2.
• El Salvador booked an 8.5% increase in shipments to 51 MM2.
• Mexico saw an 8.3% increase to 71 MM2.
• Honduras was the only country in the top ten to see a shipment volume decline during August by 8.3% to 75 MM2.

Combined, textile and apparel imports to the US during August were up 34.8% in volume terms to 9,194 MM2, year-on-year. In value terms, they were up 22% to $10.98bn.

Textiles alone were up 44.5% year-on-year to 6,353 MM2 and 19.9% in value terms to $2.9bn.

Year-to-date

Exploring the data through a wider lens, given the skew experienced from the Covid-19 pandemic during 2020, which saw factories across the globe shutdown as governments attempted to curb the virus spread, textile and apparel imports have grown 47% to 59,059 MM2 for the January to August period and in value terms have grown 28.14% to $71.4bn.

Apparel imports alone have risen 31.1% to 18,709 MM2 with El Salvador seeing the biggest increase at 59.8% to 428 MM2, followed by Pakistan at 55% to 578 MM2. The third-largest shipment increase where apparel is concerned has come from India at 43% to 827 MM2.

Of the top three largest suppliers of apparel to the US, China saw a 35% increase in shipment volumes between January and August to 6,684 MM2, followed by Bangladesh with a 33% increase to 1,637 MM2 and Vietnam at 22.7% to 3,023 MM2.