Bangladesh goes past China to become top supplier of cotton trousers to USA

There is no stopping for Bangladesh in terms of apparel exports!

And, the country yet again proved its rising dominance by beating China in cotton trousers exports to USA during Jan.-Apr. ’19 period. Bangladesh is now the TOP supplier of cotton trousers in the US market with US $ 886.52 million worth of shipment, while China slipped to 2nd place with US $ 869.51 million export value. In the corresponding period of the prior year, Bangladesh stood at US $ 783.71 million, whereas China stayed far ahead of Bangladesh and shipped trousers valued at US $ 941.11 million.

China tumbled by 7.61 per cent this year in value-terms allowing Bangladesh to grab the shift and record a surge of 13.12 per cent in the first four months of 2019. Not just value-wise, China plunged massively in volume terms as well. It shipped just 16.19 million dozen of trousers to USA, declining 12.54 per cent on the yearly note.

On the other hand, Bangladesh shipped 15.53 million dozen of cotton trousers to USA, marking 7.73 per cent surge on Y-o-Y basis. Bangladesh significantly kept its unit prices (US $ 57.07 per dozen) lower than other Asian manufacturing destinations except Indonesia (in top 10 tally) whose unit prices were US $ 51.14 per dozen. Despite offering the lowest unit prices, Indonesia dwindled by 6.90 per cent to ship US $ 196.48 million as compared to US $ 211.04 million in the same period of last year.

India, in the review period, grew 15.05 per cent in its cotton trousers export to USA and valued at US $ 134.12 million. Despite growth coming in, India stood at 8th rank which is not in sync with India’s reputation considering the country is traditionally rich in cotton. What is worth noting is that even countries like Pakistan and Cambodia are ahead of India with US $ 163.94 million (up 4.43 per cent) and US $ 144.12 million (up 4 per cent), respectively.

Interestingly, India is still lagging behind Pakistan and Cambodia even after offering lower unit prices to the buyers and that’s a major concern for the country’s exporters. India UVR (unit value realisation) stood at US $ 64.08 per dozen, while Pakistan and Cambodia offered unit prices US $ 74.70 per dozen and US $ 66.48 per dozen, respectively.

It’s worth noting here that, during the said period, USA imported cotton trousers worth US $ 4.14 billion, growing 4.09 per cent on Y-o-Y basis.

Cotton Trousers Exports to USA by Top 8 Countries
(Period January to April 2019)

Data Source: OTEXA
Compiled by: Apparel Resources