Bangladesh’s readymade garment (RMG) exports to the United States in January-September of the ongoing calendar year declined by 23.33% to $5.78 billion, against $7.54 billion in the same period last year, due to slow demand for apparel products and high inflation in the US.
The country’s apparel exports to the US in September 2023 fell by 34.71% to $594.76 million year-on-year compared with those of $911.07 million in the same month of 2022, according to the US Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel (Otexa) data released on Tuesday.
Of the first nine months of 2023, Bangladesh’s RMG exports to the US registered negative growth in seven months except January and July.
Exporters said that the overall import by the US declined due to the economic slowdown caused by the Russia-Ukraine war and the situation might prevail for three to four more months.
The Otexa data also showed that the total US imports of readymade garments from different countries in the nine months of 2023 declined by 22.81% to $60.82 billion compared with $78.80 billion in the same period of 2022.
The US data, however, showed that Bangladesh’s position remained unchanged as the third-largest apparel exporter in the US market with 9.73% share in January-September of 2023 while China and Vietnam occupied the first and the second highest positions with 20.47% and 17.98% respectively.
The import of apparel by the US from China in January-September of 2023 fell by 28.12% to $ 12.75 billion compared with that of $17.74 billion in the same period of 2022.
RMG imports by the US from Vietnam in the nine months of 2023 decreased by 24.13% to $11.06 billion compared with $14.59 billion in the same period of the past year.
The OTEXA data showed that India’s RMG exports to the US market in January-September of 2023 fell by 21.91% to $3.62 billion compared with $4.64 billion in the same period of the previous year.