Staff Reporter :
The USA has imported $5.71 billion worth of apparel from Bangladesh in January-July period and there by export growth increased by 54.43 per cent, which is higher than the last two years.
The Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) has released the latest official data on apparel import statistics of the USA for the period of January-July, 2022.
According to the OTEXA data, Bangladesh’s apparel exports to the US market increased to $2.48 billion in the first quarter of 2022, which was $1.52 billion during the same period of 2021.
However, Bangladesh’s apparel traders thought that their export increased in the US market because of strain relationship between Washington and Beijing.
“Though some US giant brands have cancelled their work orders in Bangladesh, there is still substantial amount of US orders. China is reducing their textile sector significantly and the US buyers are showing interest to Bangladesh and Vietnam,” Shahidullah Azim, Vice-President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) told The New Nation on Wednesday.
In the last few years, Bangladesh has made safety workplace and establishedworkers’ rights, he said adding that these gave a confidence boost to the US buyers.
Despite cancelling some renowned US brands, many more US retailers and brands placed more work orders in Bangladesh, Shahidullah Azim said in reply to a query.
“Though we have faced some constraints in getting work orders from the US buyers in the last few months-but now we are getting more orders as the COVID-19 pandemic situation is improving,” Shahidullah Azim said.
According to OTEXA, USA’s apparel import from Bangladesh increased by 54.43 per cent compared with the same period of 2021 whereas their import from the world grew by 39.06 per cent. During the mentioned period USA imported $5.71 billion worth of apparel from Bangladesh.
China remains the top apparel import source for USA registering 40.01 per cent 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 per cent 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, the OTEXA report said
The growth rate is much higher than the country’s total RMG exports. During January – March of 2022, Bangladesh earned $11.52 billion, up by 45.14 percent, which was $7.94 billion during the same period a year ago.
The United States of America is the single largest export destination for Bangladesh and over 21.50 percent of apparel export earnings came from the country.
Bangladesh supplies quality goods at affordable prices, while the US buyers are happy with the safety standard of the industry. As a result, export earnings from the country rose sharply in the first quarter of 2022, industry stakeholders opined.
