Statistics from the Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) shows, overall imports of textiles and apparel across the globe declined by 2.6 per cent in Aug’24 from July’24.

However, totaling 9.72 billion sq m equivalents, T&A imports increased by 12.9 percent Y-o-Y during the month. Textile imports declined by 2.8 per cent from the previous month but increased by 17.5 per cent Y-o-Y to 7.21 billion SME.

On the other hand, apparel imports declined by 2.0 per cent from July but increased by 1.4 per cent Y-o-Y to 2.51 billion SME in Aug’24.

Imports of textiles and apparel increased by 6.7 per cent Y-o-Y to 66.4 billion SME in Aug’24. Of these, textile imports increased by 8.6 per cent Y-o-Y to 49.7 billion SMEwhile apparel imports rose by 1.4 per cent to 16.7 billion SME

For the year ending in Aug’24 2024, total T&A imports increased by 5.3 percent Y-o-Y to 96.7 billion SME. Of these, textile imports rose by 8.0 percent to 72.2 billion SME while apparel imports declined by 1.8 percent to 24.6 billion SME

The three major importers of textiles and apparels during Aug’24 included Malaysia whose imports rose by 52.3 per cent Y-o-Y to 985.8 million SME, Israel whose textile and apparel imports rose 30.7 per cent Y-o-Y to 147.6 million SME and India whose imports expanded by 27.2 per cent to 1.18 billion SME.