US textile and apparel imports demand in May still recovering

The latest data showed that US textile and apparel imports reached 7.49 billion square meters in May, up by 111.3% year-on-year, 21.5% month-on-month and 22.6% compared with the same period in 2019 respectively. And the volume from China reached 2.86 billion square meters in May, up by 62.2% year-on-year but down 18.3% month-on-month respectively. The imports rose by 1.2% compared with that in same period of 2019.

In terms of value, US textile and apparel imports value in May moved up by 115.2% year-on-year and 8.6% month-on-month but declined by 3.9% than that in 2019 two years ago, especially the value from China dropped by 29.2% year-on-year, reflecting declines in the average prices of imports from China.

In May, US textile and apparel imports average unit price decreased compared with the previous month. From May 2020 to May 2021, the average unit price has been in shock, with a certain regularity. In May 2021, the average unit price continued to decline month-on-month. It could be seen from the comparison that the unit price of US textile and apparel imported from China has dropped greatly since the second half of 2019. The sharp decline in the average unit price may be caused by dropping price of China's export commodities on the one hand, and the change in the commodity structure of US textile and apparel imported from China on the other hand.

Both US apparel imports volume and value moved up sharply year-on-year and month-on-month, but they were close to or lower than the level in 2019. Therefore, the imports volume and value did not recover to the level in the same period of 2019. The US apparel imports volume and value from China rose in evidence year-on-year and month-on-month, but they were much lower than the level in 2019, indicating that the overall was weaker than those of textiles.

From January to May, the proportion of US textile and apparel imported from China decreased by 1.6 percentage points and 6.4 percentage points compared with the same period in 2019, and the volume and value of apparel also dropped. The above data showed that share of the imports from China was still not optimistic, and the share competition from other markets intensified.

In conclusion, US textile and apparel imports demand in May continued to recover, but the volume growth from China was less than the overall growth rate, indicating that other market shares were increasing, and the average unit price of US textile and apparel imported from China reduced in evidence.