The latest data on US apparel imports indicates declining buying from Bangladesh. As per OTEXA, Bangladesh’s apparel shipment to the USA from January to October 2024 tumbled by 3.31 per cent to US $ 6.15 billion.
However, the volumes have increased marginally by 1 per cent Y-o-Y to 1.97 billion SME.
As further analysed by Apparel Resources, Bangladesh’s unit prices have dropped to US $ 3.13 in the review period as compared to US $ 3.27 in the same period of the last year, contributing to the downfall in values.
This decline has come at a time when USA’s apparel imports have fallen just marginally by 0.43 per cent, while other manufacturing counterparts of Bangladesh have upped their respective exports to the USA.
India, on the other hand, has seen a significant influx of order quantities from US buyers resulting in a surge of 11.60 per cent in volumes on Y-o-Y basis.
Countries like China, Sri Lanka and Vietnam have also experienced more orders in volume terms than Bangladesh in the review period.
This poses a challenging situation for Bangladesh’s RMG export industry as they have already been facing political turmoil in the country which seems to be pushing buyers away from the country gradually – at least in the short term.
