Desk Report: The US official source ‘Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA)’ released the apparel import statistics for January-August, 2022. During the mentioned period USA’s apparel import from Bangladesh increased by 53.54% compared to the same period of 2021 whereas their import from world grew by 37.35%. Bangladesh remains the 3rd largest apparel import source for USA. In January-August 2022, USA imported USD 6.64 billion worth apparel from Bangladesh.
During the first eight months of 2022, USA’s imports from China grew by 37.17% and reached USD 15.56 billion. At the same time, imports from Vietnam stood at USD 12.80 billion with 33.62% year-on-year growth.
Among the top ten apparel suppliers to the USA, imports from India, Indonesia, Cambodia, South Korea and Pakistan increased by 56.90%, 56.48%, 51.64%, 42.96% and 42.16% year-on-year respectively.
Mohiuddin Rubel, Director, BGMEA said, the import figures indicate that USA’s retail industry is witnessing fast recovery from Covid crisis. This reflects Bangladesh’s export till July 2022 which was significantly higher.
Such sharp uptick in USA’s import growth is not foreseen in the current month and onward due to depressive global economy and rising inflation. Since Bangladesh’s RMG export maintained positive growth till August, this will reflect in USA’s import in September, so we may see some growth in US import from Bangladesh in September, however it’s likely that US’s import from Bangladesh may post negative growth in October 2022,added Mr. Mohiuddin.
