Md. Mohiuddin Rubel
Director, BGMEA
The U.S.A.’s official data source ‘Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEUSA’s imports from Bangladesh might keep on positive trend till September, and maXA)’ released the latest apparel import statistics of U.S.A. for the period of January-July, 2022.
According to OTEXA, USA’s apparel import from Bangladesh increased by 54.43% compared to the same period of 2021 whereas their import from the world grew by 39.06%. During the mentioned period USA imported USD 5.71 billion worth of apparel from Bangladesh.
China remains the top apparel import source for USA registering 40.01% year-over-year growth during the mentioned period. USA’s imports from China stood USD 12.79 billion in this time.
At the same time, USA’s imports from Vietnam reached USD 10.91 billion with 35.30% year-over-year growth.
Other top countries such as Indonesia, India, Cambodia, South Korea, and Pakistan also posted significant growth during the same period.
The surge in USA’s import is caused by recovery from the pandemic and increased shopping by consumers resulted in retail sales growth. However, the upward trend might not sustain in the fourth quarter of 2022 due to inflation at historic level, raise in Fed rates, downturn in economic growth than projections and anticipated recession. Unusual long summer may also affect winter clothing range. However, we observed that Bangladesh’s total export maintained significant growth until August 2022, which means USA’s imports from Bangladesh might keep on positive trend till September, and may falter afterwards as retail sales is affected by economic turmoil and buyers being cautious about overstock and current production.
