Vietnam exported more readymade garments (RMG) to the united States (US) than Bangladesh – the world’s second largest apparel exporters, in June despite retailers beefed up their stocks anticipating a higher sales in spring and summer, traders said. Vietnam exported 269 million SME (square metre) while Bangladesh exported 162 million SME to the US in June last, while China the largest supplier of apparels to the US exported 996 million SME in the same month. Of the top-ten RMG exporters to US Vietnam tok the second place while Bangladesh was downgraded to the 3rd position despite the exports of RMG from Bangladesh to US grew sluggishly. While China remained top of the table , with growth accelerating from the month before, strong double-digit gains were booked by three of the top ten suppliers countries: Vietnam, Bangladesh and Indonesia. The latest figure from the Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) show the volume of US apparel imports from all sources increased 7.7 per cent year-on-year in June, up from 6.8 per cent rise in May. US imports reached 2.33 billion square metre (SME), up from 2.17 billion SME in June last year. In terms of individual supplier countries, the three leaders all saw growth. Shipment from China — the largest supplier of apparels to the us – were up 6.4 per cent to 996 million SME. Nearest rival Vietnam continued to build grew momentum, growing to 269 million SME, compared to the same month a year ago. And Bangladesh ranked number three in the top-10 league table, saw apparel shipment jump 23.3 per cent to 162 million SME. Indonesia delivered impressive growth of 12.2 per cent to reach 10 million SME. Year-on-year import growth was also reported by other top-ten suppliers, including Cambodia, (up 7.8 per cent to 82 million SME), India (up 4.9 per cent to 84 million SME), El Salvador (up 6.7 per cent to 75 million SME) and Pakistan (up 4.7 per cent to 51 million SME). However, Honduras and Mexico suffered in June, reporting respective fall of 0.1 per cent to 100 million SME and 0.7 to 80 million SME.
