South Korea's apparel imports from Vietnam ease 7.7% to $3.4 bn

Trade data from Fibre2Fashion's market insight tool TexPro indicates a slow demand for apparel in South Korea in the last year due to economic uncertainty. However, the inbound shipment gained 13.31 per cent in the year 2022 over the preceding year. The inbound trade was noted at $3.503 billion in 2018. It gained 1.97 per cent to reach $3.572 billion in 2019. However, the pandemic restricted the trade, causing it to slip 14.65 per cent to $3.065 billion in 2020. Subsequently, the imports recovered by 7.48 per cent to $3.294 billion in 2021 and 13.31 per cent to $3.733 billion in 2022.

On the other hand, South Korea was the third-largest market for Vietnamese apparel exports after the United States and Japan. South Korea accounted for 10.59 per cent of Vietnam's total apparel exports of $32.517 billion 2023.

Looking deeper into South Korea's apparel imports from Vietnam, it is revealed that trousers & shorts dominated the trade with a share of 27.95 per cent. The imports of trousers & shorts were valued at $755.283 million last year. T-shirts accounted for 10.47 per cent, shirts for 9.39 per cent, jerseys for 8.32 per cent, and jackets & blazers for 5.91 per cent of the total apparel imports by South Korea from the partner country, as per TexPro.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (KUL)