WASHINGTON — Textile and apparel imports rose 11 percent in January compared with a year ago, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.
For the month, textile and apparel imports totaled almost 1.4 billion square meters equivalent, a record for any January, but short of the 1.5 billion SME record for a single month’s imports, established last August.
For the 12 months through January, textile and apparel imports rose 10.8 percent, to just under 16 billion SME.
During January, apparel imports rose 10 percent to 651.7 million SME. For the 12 months through January, they were up 8.2 percent to 7.6 billion SME. Textile imports rose 12 percent in January to 718.6 million SME, while for the year ending in January they jumped 13.2 percent to about 8.4 billion SME.
The textile figures, however, were skewed upwards by yarn imports. Yarns contributed 19 percent of January’s total textile imports as measured by SME and were up 36.3 percent, compared with a year ago. Excluding yarns, textile imports would have been up 8.2 percent in January.
Among the U.S.’s top 10 textile apparel suppliers, Mexico, ranked sixth, posted the biggest percentage increase, up 30.2 percent in January against a year ago. Most of this was due to sharply higher shipments of three categories. Man-made fiber underwear, category 652, soared 183 percent to 3.3 million SME. Man-made fiber blankets and curtains, category 666, jumped 117 percent to 4 million SME, and nylon and polyester yarns, category 606, rose 113 percent to 6.6 million SME.
Canada, the U.S.’s number three supplier, saw its exports rise 26.8 percent to 107.2 million SME in January, versus a year ago. Most of this was accounted for by a 49.8 percent increase, to 18.2 million SME, of acetate filament yarn, category 606, and by a 42.9 percent increase, to 15.4 million SME, in shipments of non-woven fabrics, category 223.
Imports from Hong Kong, the number two supplier, rose 25.9 percent, to 111.7 million SME in January, versus a year ago. The leading import gainers were cotton body shirts and body suits, category 359, up 75.8 percent to 9.89 million SME; men’s and boys’ and women’s and girl’s cotton pants, category 347/348, up 68.8 percent to about 14.8 million SME, and cotton and man-made fiber underwear, category 352/652, up 53.6 percent to about 15 million SME.
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Meanwhile, China, the U.S.’s top supplier of textiles and apparel, posted a 1.9 percent decrease in shipments, to 188.7 million SME during January, versus a year ago. Shipments of cotton pants, 347/348, fell 91.4 percent in January, to 551,600 SME. In addition, there were no shipments of cotton sheets, category 313, in January, against 2.2 million SME in January 1993.