World Textile and Apparel Trade and Production Trends: the USA, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico

摘要

US consumer expenditure on clothing and footwear rebounded strongly in 2010 and continued to grow during the first nine months of 2011. Reflecting the recovery, US textile and clothing imports rose substantially in value and volume in 2010 although they fell in volume in the first nine months of 2011. There was also a recovery in exports in 2010 as demand in foreign markets picked up, and exports continued to improve in the first nine months of 2011. As a result of these trends, US textile output rose in 2010 after falling in 2009 but clothing output only started to recover in the first nine months of 2011. Employment in the year to October 2011 was down compared with the year to October 2010 but by only 1.6% in textiles and 0.1% in clothing. In Argentina textile and clothing exports soared in value by 43.2% in 2010 after falling in 2009. The recovery was helped by a weaker peso, and was propelled by substantially higher shipments to Brazil, China, the EU, Peru and Turkey. Textile output also rebounded vigorously in 2010 and increased by 14.6% in the first nine months of 2011. The industry in Brazil enjoyed a similar recovery as textile and clothing exports rose sharply after dropping in 2009. However, imports rose at a faster rate than exports and continued to increase during January-September 2011. Reflecting this, output grew in 2010 but it declined in 2011. In Colombia textile and clothing exports began to recover in 2011 after falling sharply during 2008-10. The recovery was bolstered by higher exports during the first nine months of 2011 to Panama, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Mexico and Ecuador while exports to several other markets grew rapidly. However, exports to Venezuela declined by 16.6% following a decrease of 55.5% in 2010. In Mexico textile and clothing exports grew by 10.6% in 2010, which was the first rise in six years. Textile and clothing production also increased during the year. However, the recovery proved short-lived and in the first nine months of 2011 production of textile inputs was down by 5.1%, production of other textile products was down by 2.9% and production of clothing was down by 3.2%.