Mirroring the erosion in total textile and apparel shipments, Chinese shipments to U.S. shores are weaker in June and over the first six months of the year. The largest supplier of both textiles and clothing to the U.S. market hasn't been immune from the difficult environment facing many foreign shippers. A gradually stronger yuan and weaker U.S. consumer spending continue to weigh on imports from China. June arrivals of total textiles and apparel from China fell -11.8% from a year earlier, the steepest drop in over seven years, pulled lower by man-made fiber products dropping -14.7%. The decline in this latest month exacerbated the year-to-date decrease, off -2.8% from the first half of 2007. At this pace, Globecot forecasts that imported textiles and apparel from China are likely to dip for the first time in seven years, dropping to 20.8 billion square meter equivalents (SMEs).
The erosion of imports from China in recent months coincides with a rise in the average unit cost of Chinese textiles and apparel reaching U.S. shores. In fact, over the last two months, as Chinese shipments declined from year-ago levels, China's dollar cost per SME for total textiles and apparel not only rose from year-earlier levels, but outpaced the price increases from the rest of the world. These faster increases in unit cost help explain why China's volume has begun to slow faster than imports from the rest of the world.
