Economy Desk: US buyer companies have greatly increased their imports of ready-made garments from Bangladesh. In January this year, ready-made garments worth $799.56 million were exported to the US market. This export is 45.93 percent more than in January last year.
In January 2024, Bangladesh’s ready-made garment export revenue was $547.95 million.
This information was obtained from the updated statistics of the Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) under the US Department of Commerce.
According to the organization, US importers imported ready-made garments worth $7.2 billion from different countries around the world in January last year. In January last year, they imported $6.03 billion worth of clothing. That means that US ready-made garment imports increased by 19.5 percent in January this year.
The US is the largest market for Bangladeshi ready-made garments. Bangladesh started to turn around in ready-made garment exports to this market last year. Although there was no major growth, it returned to a positive trend by the end of 2024. In total, Bangladesh exported $7.34 billion worth of ready-made garments last year. This export is 0.75 percent more than in 2023. Exports to the US market fell by 25 percent to $7.29 billion in 2023 due to the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Meanwhile, two weeks after US President Donald Trump took office, Bangladeshi garment industry entrepreneurs have talked about new prospects for the market as he imposed additional tariffs on imports of goods from Canada, Mexico, and China. They say that an additional 10 percent tariff has been imposed on Chinese products. This will cause US buyer companies to transfer purchase orders from China. As a result, there will be an opportunity for Bangladesh to get additional purchase orders.
Even investors may be interested in moving factories from China to other countries. Bangladesh can also take that investment opportunity. However, the current growth in garment exports is mainly due to the impact of additional purchase orders as the country’s economy rebounds, according to garment industry entrepreneurs.
According to Autexa, China exported $1.6 billion worth of ready-made garments to the US market in January this year. This export is 13.72 percent more than the same period last year. On the other hand, Vietnam exported ready-made garments worth $1.44 billion in January this year. This export is 19.90 percent more than the same period last year.
