Bangladesh’s single-month apparel export earnings from the United States topped the $1-billion mark for the first time in March as both export orders and unit prices witnessed a surge in the market.
The export earnings almost doubled in March from the US compared with that of the same month of 2021, according to the US Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel data released on Wednesday.
The country’s RMG exports to the US in March 2022 posted a record increase by 96.10 per cent or $506.55 million to $1.03 billion compared with that of $527.01 million in the same month of 2021.
Apparel exports to the US, the single largest export destination for Bangladesh, grew by 62.32 per cent or $950 million to $2.47 billion in January-March of 2022 compared with that of $1.52 billion in the same period of 2021.
Exporters said that the US had been shifting its sourcing from China gradually and Bangladesh getting the benefit.
At the same time, the unit prices of products increased on the global market due to the price hike of raw materials.
In terms of volume, the apparel exports to the US from Bangladesh in the first quarter of 2022 grew by 50.12 per cent or 304 million square metres to 909 million square metres from 606 million square metres in the same period of 2021, the data showed.
In March 2022, the apparel exports to the US from Bangladesh increased by 77.70 per cent or 165.84 million square metres to 379.21 million square metres from 213.36 million square metres in the same month of 2021.
‘Bangladesh’s exports to the US will continue to increase in the coming days as China is shifting its apparel manufacturing by itself and at the same time the US is shifting its sourcing from China in a big way,’ Md Shahidullah Azim, vice-president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, told New Age.
He said that Bangladesh was also getting additional export orders from the US due to political instabilities in Myanmar and Ethiopia.
Shahidullah said that the prices of apparel products increased on the global market but proportionately those were still lower than the price hike of raw materials.
The OTEXA data showed that the total US imports of RMG from the world in January-March of 2022 increased by 39.71 per cent to $24.31 billion compared with that of $17.40 billion in the same period of the previous year.
The US apparel imports from China in the first quarter of 2022 grew by 44.27 per cent to $5.32 billion from $3.68 billion in the same period of 2021.
RMG imports by the US from Vietnam in January-March of 2022 increased by $29.86 per cent to $4.45 billion from $3.42 billion in the same period of the past year.
India’s RMG exports to the US market in the first quarter of 2022 grew by 53.49 per cent to $1.49 billion from $976 million in the same period of the previous year.
RMG imports by the US from Indonesia in January-March of 2022 increased by 62.31 per cent to $1.45 billion while the imports from Cambodia grew by 39.99 per cent to $1.08 billion in the month, the data showed.
