US's Office of Textile and Apparel (OTEXA) released the statistics import of wool apparel. It shows the average price of wool apparel dropped moderately for the first seven months of 2005 while import volumes lifted significantly for the same period.
Key fibre types like cotton and synthetics followed a similar trend.
The decline in average value for wool apparel was not spread evenly among product categories, with, for instance, prices for women's wool skirts actually rising year-on-year.
The price falls were most evident in men's and women's trousers, men's sweaters and men's coats.
The surge in imports by the US from China of lower priced items has resulted in lower average import prices for the US, despite some price rises from other countries.
While China is the key wool apparel exporting country into the US in volume terms in total, there are still quite a number of wool apparel categories in which China is not the key volume exporter.
In men's wool coats China is ranked in third position behind Mexico and Colombia and in men's wool trousers it ranks behind Mexico and India.
For men's coats, Mexico and Colombia actually bucked the trend of falling prices and recorded strong year-on-year gains with average prices lifting for the January to July period.
OTEXA provide practical information to help you select your markets and products. ITA is headed by the Under Secretary for International Trade who oversees the operations of ITA's four units: The Commercial Service, Manufacturing and Services, Market Access and Compliance and Import Administration.
Australian Wool Innovation Limited
marketing@alchempro.com
