Mexico is one of the important countries when it comes to denim and jeans manufacturing. Before the MFA phaseout, it was the largest exporter of jeans to the US but over the years, it has lost its premier position to competition from Asian countries.
However, the industry is still big and caters to US , some nearby countries and its own growing domestic market. The country still imports a sizeable qty of denim fabrics from US and other countries in the world for conversion into garments. We had previous seen the details of such imports till 2011 and in this report we will see the details of the years 2012 and 2013.
- Total imports of denim fabrics in 2012 and 2013
- Countrywise break up of quantities – giving the top countries which are exporting to Mexico.
- Share of these countries by volume.
- The value of such exports from each of the country.
It would be seen that some of the countries dominate the import market of Mexico and the prices vary very much from country to country.
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Imports of Denim Fabrics Into Mexico – 2013
|
Country |
Value (USD) |
Volume(sq mtrs) |
% Share |
|
USA |
172,813,463.00 |
70,415,647.00 |
60.40 |
|
China |
21,647,635.00 |
32,557,917.00 |
27.93 |
|
Hong Kong |
1,466,414.00 |
6,986,148.00 |
5.99 |
|
Pakistan |
2,649,996.00 |
2,019,690.00 |
1.73 |
|
India |
935,343.00 |
1,640,491.00 |
1.41 |
|
Colombia |
1,449,357.00 |
834,450.00 |
0.72 |
|
Brazil |
897,678.00 |
351,648.00 |
0.30 |
|
Guatemala |
354,329.00 |
241,815.00 |
0.21 |
|
Turkey |
798,989.00 |
171,150.00 |
0.15 |
|
Japan |
844,884.00 |
143,255.00 |
0.12 |
|
Panama |
160,927.00 |
59,848.00 |
0.05 |
|
Spain |
25,916.00 |
26,134.00 |
0.02 |
|
Egypt |
72,314.00 |
25,511.00 |
0.02 |
|
Greece |
34,385.00 |
6,581.00 |
0.01 |
|
Others |
4,626,889.00 |
1,098,655.00 |
0.94 |
|
Total |
208,778,519.00 |
116,578,940.00 |
From the figures of 2013, we can see that US and China(+HK) dominate the market for imports exporting over 107 million sq mtrs out of 116 million sq mtrs exported to Mexico ie about 88%. The next in line for decent export figures are Pakistan , India and Colombia. Together they export around another 5 million sq mtrs to Mexico in 2013. The average price of denim coming into Mexico is about $1.80/ sq mtr. It looks quite low and two things need to be considered:
a) The normal average width of the fabrics can be taken as 155cm and at this width the pricing would come to $2.79 .
b) The import values of denim, specially from China are not always correctly stated and are , at many times, understated. So the actual prices are expected to be higher.
Now lets look at the figures for 2012. The share of US and China together is about 91% , ie they have lost about 3% share in 2013 . The total quantity imported into Mexico remains almost same at about 115 million sq mtrs. However, the average value of the imports was higher at $1.94/sq mtr as compared to $1.80/sq mtr in 2013. Colombia, which a decent 2.2 million sq mtr sale to Mexico in 2012 was left to less than a million sq mtrs , while the exports from Pakistan and India increased.
Imports of Denim Fabrics into Mexico in 2012
|
Country |
Value (USD) |
Volume(sq mtrs) |
% Share |
|
USA |
172,390,373.00 |
67,052,854.00 |
58.14 |
|
China |
31,983,743.00 |
39,020,467.00 |
33.83 |
|
Colombia |
5,122,180.00 |
2,554,920.00 |
2.22 |
|
Pakistan |
2,856,167.00 |
1,628,884.00 |
1.41 |
|
Italy |
5,430,319.00 |
1,042,687.00 |
0.90 |
|
India |
1,116,705.00 |
1,019,844.00 |
0.88 |
|
Brazil |
1,053,303.00 |
400,812.00 |
0.35 |
|
Taiwan |
287,581.00 |
142,220.00 |
0.12 |
|
Turkey |
588,835.00 |
111,482.00 |
0.10 |
|
Japan |
847,455.00 |
96,866.00 |
0.08 |
|
Guatemala |
74,852.00 |
47,192.00 |
0.04 |
|
Others |
2,678,666.00 |
2,221,168.00 |
1.92 |
|
Total |
224,430,179 |
115,339,396 |
Mexico is still a difficult market when looked from the price perspective as very cheap denim gets imported into the country , at times avoiding duties, making it difficult for high value products to enter . However, the market will slowly mature and make way for better products to enter the country as also the local manufacturing base is shrinking and domestic market is increasing in size. Also to note is that the exports from US to Mexico may not always remain high as US productions are also going down. As a result the imports from third countries are expected to increase in future. Currently fabrics from US enjoy duty free access to Mexico for re-export of jeans to US. This is the main factor which has enabled US to maintain its strong exports to Mexico. But in the future this might change.
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