As a new month approaches in 2020, the yearly drop in the US apparel imports reduces from the same month of 2019 and that’s what signals towards a gradual rebound of the apparel market in the country. According to the latest data of OTEXA that’s analysed by Team Apparel Resources, USA witnessed a decline of 6.90 per cent in its apparel import values in October ’20 from October ’19 – that’s the start of fourth and final quarter of 2020. The October figures translate to US $ 6.92 billion worth of garments as against US $ 7.44 billion in the same month of 2019. It’s also worth noting here that October has registered the highest value in 2020, beating the figures of the previous best month January when import valued US $ 6.75 billion that too in pre-COVID time. Notably, the import of USA in Q3 ’20 (July-September) was, however, down by 23.50 per cent, considering that at the start of quarter the figures were as low as 32 per cent in July ’20, before plunging by 22 per cent in August ’20 and 15 per cent in September ’20. The trend clearly gives a positive trajectory and sets apart the expectations of the garment factories for festive season in the USA. The shrinking Y-o-Y decline can be attributed to the heavy negotiations of the US buyers with factories on price terms and, as a result, the unit prices of the apparels entering into USA reduced to US $ 2.75 per SME in October ’20 as against US $ 3.10 per SME in October ’19, making a total drop of 11.29 per cent. Furthermore, there was a monthly surge of 7.46 per cent in October ’20 as compared to the import done by the USA in September ’20.
