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Bangladesh’s apparel and textile exports to the United States crossed $10 billion in 2022 amid global economic volatility as the US shifted a good chunk of its business from China.
According to the latest US Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel data released on Tuesday, the US apparel and textile imports from Bangladesh in 2022 grew by 35.38 per cent to $10.04 billion compared with that of $7.42 billion in 2021.
Readymade garment exports from Bangladesh to the US in 2022 increased by 36.38 per cent to $9.74 billion from $7.14 billion in 2021, the data showed.
Share of Bangladeshi apparel in the US market in 2022 increased to 9.75 per cent from 8.76 per cent in 2021, the OTEXA data showed.
Exporters said that Bangladesh gained share in the US market in 2022 due to the China plus one policy of North America.
They said that the US started relocating its sourcing from China after a trade war began between the two countries in 2018 and it would not end in near future.
Exporters said that Bangladesh received a chunk of business shifted from China and at the same time buyers relocated their manufacturing from Myanmar to Bangladesh.
Mahmud Hasan Khan Babu, managing director of Rising Group, said that Bangladesh’s share in the US apparel market would increase more in coming days as shifting from China by the western buyers would continue.
The total US imports of readymade garments from the world in 2022 increased by 22.48 per cent to nearly $100 billion compared with that of $51.59 billion in 2021.
The OTEXA data showed that Bangladesh’s position remained unchanged as the third-largest apparel exporter in the US market with 9.75 per cent share while China and Vietnam occupied the first and the second highest positions with 21.75 per cent and 18.26 per cent share respectively.
The market share of Chinese apparel was 24.03 per cent in 2021.
The data showed that the import of apparel by the US from China in 2022 grew by 10.83 per cent to $21.73 billion from $19.61billion in 2021.
After the Rana Plaza building collapse in 2013, which killed more than 1,100 people of whom mostly were readymade garment workers, the US government suspended duty-free market access of Bangladeshi products under generalised system of preferences showing poor working condition as an excuse although RMG was never entitled for the GSP facility on the US market.
In 2013, Bangladesh’s share of the US apparel market was 6.20 per cent and the share increased to 9.75 per cent in past nine years.
The share of Chinese apparel in the US market was 37.32 per cent in 2013 and it decreased to 21.75 per cent in 2022, the US data showed.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association president Faruque Hassan said that growth of apparel exports to the US market was encouraging as Bangladeshi suppliers gained confidence of global buyers amid a supply chain disruption caused by the Russia-Ukraine war.
He said that export earnings increased amid the global economic slowdown as unit prices increased due to the price hike of raw materials and growing shipment of high value added products.
RMG imports by the US from Vietnam in 2022 increased by 26.97 per cent to $18.24 billion from $14.37 billion in the past year.
India’s RMG exports to the US market in 2022 grew by 35.50 per cent to $5.68 billion from $4.19 billion in the previous year.
RMG imports by the US from Indonesia in 2022 increased by 35.29 per cent to $5.60 billion while the imports from Cambodia grew by 28.46 per cent to $4.35 billion in the year, the OTEXA data showed.
(NA)
