The impact of Coronavirus outbreak has been reflected in USA apparel imports in January 2020. According to OTEXA, USA noted serious downfall both in values (11.19 per cent) and volumes (10.72 per cent) of its global apparel imports.
 

USA imported 2,312.50 million SME of apparels in January 2020 worth US $ 6,757.89 million as against 2,603.78 million SME of apparels worth US $ 7,568.93 million in January 2019.

As China was the epicentre of Coronavirus, the country declred lockdown in many provinces starting third week of January till late February. This lockdown forced manufacturers to keep their factories closed.

The New Year holidays also fell in January which added to woes and China drastically slumped by massive 36 per cent in its export values to USA in the starting month of 2020. From US $ 2,527.33 million in January 2019, China brought down its export to US $ 1,615.71 million in January 2020.

Interestingly, apparel shipments from Vietnam to USA also did not escalate too much majorly because of its TET holidays in January. The country shipped apparels worth US $ 1.31 billion revenues to USA and noted 4.12 per cent growth in values. This decent growth coupled with China’s slump made Vietnam’s apparel export to USA almost equivalent to that of China’s.

Amidst this changing landscape, even if it is temporary, Bangladesh was the one which took advantage and jumped significantly by 17 per cent in export value to hit US $ 622.40 million mark. The growth is noteworthy for the country as it concluded 2019 with stagnation in its exports to USA.

India again seemed to have missed the bus as it couldn’t grab the opportunity and nosedived by 2.81 per cent to ship apparels worth US $ 370.50 million to USA in January 2020, as per the data of OTEXA.

The biggest beneficiaries from Asia were Cambodia (up 20 per cent) and Myanmar (up 86.95 per cent). Myanmar almost doubled its apparel exports to USA which is overwhelming for the country’s manufacturers. It shipped US $ 29.72 million worth of garments to the US in January 2020 as against US $ 15.90 million worth of garments in January 2019.

On the other hand, Cambodia escalated its apparel exports to US $ 277.40 million in January 2020 from US $ 231.32 million in January 2019.

It is expected the apparel trade between countries is not going to improve even in February as COVID-19 has severely impacted supply chain not just in China but other major manufacturing hubs across the world as well. This is going to impact all manufactured goods as well as services.