The data and analysis in McKinsey’s Global Economics Intelligence are developed by guest authors Alan FitzGerald, a director of client capabilities in McKinsey’s New York office; Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, a capabilities and insights specialist at the Waltham Client Capability Hub, where Vivien Singer is a capabilities and insights expert; and Sven Smit, a senior partner in the Amsterdam office.
The authors wish to thank Richard Bucci, Debadrita Dhara, Eduardo Doryan, Adrian Grad, Tomasz Mataczynski, Moira Pierce, Raye Qin, Jose Maria Quiros, and Maricruz Vargas for their contributions to this article.
With most people returning to work, the demand for textile and apparel in the US turned positive for the first time in the month of July. Latest data from CCF Group shows, import of textile and apparels by the US increased by 31.1 % in July though it declined by 18.8 % on a year-on-year basis. Of the total textile and apparel imports, the volume of imports from China increased 37.1 % even though it declined by 13.9 % on a year-on-year basis. For January-June period, the cumulative textile and apparel imports by US declined 19.9 % to 26.86 billion sq. mt. Of this, the volume of imports from China declined 26.8 % to 10.83 % year-on-year.
Value of imports up 38.9 % …
The value of US textile and apparel imports in June increased 38.9 % month-on-month. However, this value declined by 37.5 % year-on-yearChina regains top position as textile and apparel exports to the basis to reach USD 5.7 billion. The value of imports from China increased by 40.7 % month-on-month but declined by 40.2 % year-on-year to reach USD 1.9 billion. During the January-June period declined the total textile and apparel imports by the US declined by 27.9 % year-on-year to 38.63 billion sq. mt. From this, volume of imports from China declined by 43.1 % to 9.6 billion square meteres.
By value, US apparel imports value in Jun declined by 42.8 % year-on-year to USD 3.97 billion, but these imports increased by 49.3 % month-on-month basis in June. Imports from China declined by 48.4 % on a year-on-year basis but increased by 59.7 % month-on-month to reach USD 1.16 billion. During the Jan-June period, cumulative US textile and apparel imports declined by 27.9 % year-on-year to 27.89 billion sq. mt. The volume of imports from China also declined 49 % year-on-year to 5.77 billion sq. mt.
…but import volume down 34.3 %
Though the volume of US’ textile and apparel imports shrank by 34.3 % year-on-year it increased by 57.8 percent month-on-month in June. The volume of textiles and garments imported from China declined by 32.5 % year-on-year, but increased by 65.4 cent to 0.65 billion sq. mt. During the cumulative period of January-June, textile and apparel imports by the US declined by 27.9 % year-on-year to 9.67 billion sq. mt. The volume of imports from China declined 38.3 % to 3.06 billion sq. mt.
These statistics prove that despite the clarion call to ban imports from China, US fashion companies continue to look at the country as an important apparel sourcing base. Though these companies imported more apparels from Vietnam from February-April 2020, China quickly regained its position as top apparel supplier to the US.