US apparel imports: Trousers & shorts dominate as market faces decline

According to Fibre2Fashion's market insight tool TexPro, jerseys were the second most dominant apparel item, with imports valued at $13.355 billion last year, accounting for 17.26 per cent of the total apparel imports. Similarly, the imports of shirts were noted at $8.274 billion (10.70 per cent), T-shirts at $6.931 billion (8.96 per cent), innerwear at $4.947 billion (6.40 per cent), dresses at $4.558 billion (5.89 per cent), accessories at $2.331 billion (3.01 per cent), socks at $2.314 billion (2.99 per cent), baby wear at $1.877 billion (2.43 per cent), and nightwear at $1.610 million (2.08 per cent).

During January-February 2024, the imports of trousers and shorts by the US were valued at $3.089 billion, which was the most dominant product, with a share of 24.94 per cent of the total apparel imports. During the period, the value and share of jersey imports were $1.611 billion (13.01 per cent), shirts at $1.529 billion (12.35 per cent), T-shirts at $1.149 billion (9.27 per cent), dresses at $918.547 million (7.41 per cent), innerwear at $848.609 million (6.85 per cent), socks at $337.101 million (2.72 per cent), baby wear at $327.374 million (2.63 per cent), accessories at $325.454 million (2.63 per cent), and jackets and blazers at $280.017 million (2.26 per cent).

As per TexPro, US apparel imports decreased to $77.357 billion in 2023 from shipments of $100.037 billion in 2022. During January-February 2024, the imports were noted at $12.391 billion, which were slightly lower than the imports of $13.280 billion in the same period of 2023. The trade has witnessed a drop of 6.69 per cent in the first two months of this year, showing that the decline in US apparel imports has slowed down but continued.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (KUL)