Readymade garment export earnings from the US market grew by 9.47 per cent to $2.68 billion in the first six months of this year compared with that of $2.45 billion in the same period of last year, according to the data released by the Office of Textiles and Apparels under the US commerce department on Friday. Businesses said the export to the US market continued to rise since February as exporters gained the confidence of the buyers there, overcoming the negative impact of two major disasters in the Bangladesh garment sector. Bangladesh’s total exports to the US market in the January-June period of 2015 increased by 9.70 per cent to $2.80 billion from $2.56 billion in the same period of 2014. Exporters said the export growth in the US market in the first six month was encouraging but the growth was still lower than that of Vietnam, India and Sri Lanka, major competing countries. Apparel export earnings of Vietnam from US in the first six months grew by 15.43 per cent to $4.94 billion from $4.28 billion in the same period of the year 2014, according to the data. India’s apparel exports to the US market in the January-June period of this year increased by 10.02 per cent to $2 billion from $1.82 billion in the same period of last year, the data showed. Textile and garment exports from Sri Lanka to the US market in the January-June of 2015 increased by 16.46 per cent to $999.83 million from $858.53 million in the same period of 2014. Apparel exports of China to the US market in the first six months of this year grew by 1.69 per cent to $12.60 billion from $12.39 billion in the same period of last year. ‘The continued apparel export rise in the US market is a good sign, but still we remain behind the growth achieved by India and Vietnam,’ Faruque Hassan, former president of Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association, told New Age. He said that export orders from the US increased slightly in recent times as the buyers were now satisfied with the safety measures taken following the Rana Plaza tragedy under the initiatives of two platforms of the global buyers. Faruque said the FOB (freight on board) prices increased in the US market due to an increase in export of value-added products. BGMEA vice-president Shahidullah Azim said the export growth achieved by Vietnam and India in the US market indicated that some of the share of Bangladesh had already shifted to those countries. He said that the export to US witnessed a moderate growth in the first six months in the US market as buyers increased orders due to satisfaction over safety and security issues as well as the stable political situation. Azim said that recovering economy and increasing consumption were also the reasons for the increasing export earnings of Bangladesh from US.
