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Category: Denim Reports

Find out the latest reports on Denim Fabrics and Jeans

  • Report on Imports of denim jeans into USA in 2007 & 2008 – a comparison

    Has the impending recession affected the imports of Denim into USA? Apparently no – if we go by the figures that have come. The imports of jeans into US has increased by 5% for the three quarters ended September 2008 as compared to the same period last year. It is also interesting to note that the increase has been uniform in both the Mens/Boys and Womens/Girls Jeans.

    Figures of Imports of Jeans into USA in 2007 and 2008

    Particulars
    2007(million pcs)
    2008(million pcs)
    Men’s/Boys Jeans
    1st qtr 49.38 43.99
    2nd qtr 68.55 73.60
    3rd qtr 84.62 94.58
    Total (3 qtrs) 202.55
    212.17 (+5%)
    4th qtr 71.44
    Grand Total 273.99
    Women’s/Girls Jeans
    1st qtr 46.27 42.78
    2nd qtr 66.52 62.46
    3rd qr 76.99 92.7
    Total (3 qtrs) 189.78
    197.94 (+5%)
    4th qtr 59.98
    Grand Total 249.76

    Source:US customs

    These figures seem to defy logic as we get continuous reports of falling consumption levels in US esp since the first quarter of 2008 showed reduced imports and we have seen the growth come only in 2nd and 3rd quarters. But we still have one quarter left in 2008 and we might see some fall here. Another possibilty is that the imports of cheaper denims might be slowly replacing that of more expensive ones and it might be causing some shift in volumes to the former category and affecting overall volumes positively. But I am sure that in the coming quarters we will see some impact of the recession on the imports of Jeans into US..

    Related Posts:

    US Denim imports in 2007 & 2006

  • Denim Producer Weiqiao Textiles of China announces half yearly results

    Weiqiao Textile Company Limited of China is  a non state-owned enterprise and the largest cotton textile producer in the PRC, specializing in the production, sales and distribution of cotton yarn, grey fabric and denim.  Weiqiao Textile is located in Shandong, China’s second largest cotton producing province. The Group has four production bases in Weiqiao, Binzhou, Weihai and Zouping and employs approximately 132,000 people. For the half year ended 30 June 2008, the Group produced 422,000 tons of cotton yarn, 751,000,000 meters of grey fabric and 88,000,000 meters of denim.

    Denim Results: The company produced about 88million mtrs of denim and achieved a turnover of RMB 704 million or about USD 104 million. This translates into an average price realisation per metre of fabric of about USD 1.20 . Though the company produces more of lighter weight denims(which are cheaper), still the average prices are quite low even if compared with  denim companies in other Asian countries.

    Related links :

    Quotes and news for Weiqiao Textiles

  • Rebound in US Men’s Jeans import in second quarter


    As I mentioned in my previous report, there was a fall of about 10% in the first quarter for the total jeans imported into US. However, we now see a decent 7% improvement in the second quarter corresponding to the same quarter last year.. Here is a chart comparing the two years data by quarter..

    Mens Jeans Imports into US 2007 & 2008 – Quarter wiseNew Page 1

    Quarter 2007(million pcs) 2008(million pcs) Fall/Rise(%)
    First 49.26 43.99 -10.69%
    Second 68.56 73.60 +7.29%
    Third 84.62
    Fourth 71.44

    The third and the fourth quarters are the main quarters when we see the volumes jumping. We will have a much better idea only at the end of the third quarter. But if my guess is correct , the imports in the third quarter may register a fall and the improvement that we see in the second quarter is temporary.

    Related Posts:

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  • Imports of jeans into US continues to decline in 2008

    The fall in import figures that we saw in the year 2007 continues in the year 2008 – and more alarmingly.
    The fall is to the tune of about 10% and is quite alarming.

    IMPORTS OF MEN’S AND WOMEN’S JEANS INTO USA IN Ist QUARTER 2008

    Period Women’s/Girls Jeans(million
    pcs    )    		 Men’s/Boys Jeans(million pcs) Total
    2007 Ist Quarter 46.24 49.28 95.52
    2008 Ist Quarter 42.74 43.94 86.68
    Fall in % 7.56% 10.83% 9.25%

    Thus we see continous fall in imports of BOTH MEN’S and WOMEN’S jeans into USA. Is this a sign of Denim Overload setting in with consumers trying to experiment with products ? However, this does not seem to have effect on the labels coming up – we can see a number of new denim labels coming up every few days.However, this fact can be verified partially from the status of sales of fabric by Denim Mills. Most of the denim mills worldwide are not in particularly great position when it comes to order situation. Similarly , many garment exporters from India,Pakistan,Bangladesh etc have tried to add new product lines to cover the shortages in orders on Denims.

  • Men’s Jeans experience fall in imports into US – 6.82% in 2007

    As Compared to 2006 , the imports of Men’s Jeans into US has fallen 6.82% from 293 million pieces to about 273 million pieces in 2007.
    The fall was consistent through the various quarters of 2007(as I mentioned last year) . The table below shows the figures of imports from various countries
    IMPORTS OF MEN’S JEANS INTO USA (IN 2007) FROM DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

    Country

    Country Million Pcs Percentage Share
    Mexico 97.71 35.66
    Bangladesh 24.04 8.77
    Pakistan 15.02 5.48
    Honduras 14.35 5.23
    China 13.32 4.86
    Egypt 12.79 4.66
    Cambodia 11.88 4.33
    Costa Rica 11.79 4.30
    Lesotho 9.90 3.61
    Hongkong 6.54 2.38
    Nicaragua 6.31 2.30
    Guatemala 5.47 1.99
    India 1.84 0.67
    Jordan 1.57 0.57

    Total Imports of Mens Jeans in 2007:: 273.93 million pcs
    Source:US Customs

    Some points are worth noting from the table:
    a)Mexico still retains its position as number 1 exporter despite falling share.But that is expected to fall.
    b)China is yet to make a significant mark in the US men’s jeans market.Though it will definitely.
    c)Bangladesh has continued to make progress and has aquired a sizeable 9% share of the market.
    However, its neighbour India still has an insignificant share of 0.67% and it shows that India is absolutely uncompetitive in Men’s Jeans.
    d)Small countries like Lesotho have made great use of Sub-saharan treaties to increase exports to US
    e)Egypt has gained a great share at the cost of Jordan due to benefits extended to it. Jordan has lost the share due to its rising costs.This is continue to grow and more and more of factories are expected to shift to Egypt.

    The fall in the jeans imports is perhaps consistent with the fall in growth rate of denim consumption..

    Related Posts: Imports of Jeans continues to decline in 2008.

                                  Rebound in US Men’s Jeans Imports in second qarter.

                                 Imports of Jeans in US –2007 and 2008

  • Evisu Spring Summer ’09 Collection

    Evisu Deluxe Spring Summer ’09 collection follows the first voyage of a Japanese ship sailing to America (in 1860).It draws from the historical references of the time and tries to combine the best of Japanese and American tailoring..As the Evisu blog mentions, the ‘tailoring is inspired by the naval details such as shaped patch pockets,a high buttoning reefer jacket,sailor collars and wide legged cuffed trousers’ .
    The denim collection is also inspired by the LEE brand(H.D Lee company was founded in 1889). The collection uses a newly developed selvedge denims including No.13LEFT- a Japanese woven reproduction of the denim fabrics used by LEE 1910s onwards.Jeans cut from 13LEFT denim have the leather patch sewn on the left side of the waistband.

    Sea Washed(!) : The jeans have been hand washed in the sea and dried on the rocks nearby.This means that the washing effects will be subtle and denim will be hard (no chemicals to soften the denim are used).’Whiskering’ and ‘honeycombing’ will come with time as the jeans wears out..Exclusive tailoring is used whereby each jeans is tailored by a single operator who signs each completed pair(if I am correct -Earnest Sewn also uses such tailoring techniques to ensure quality).
    The overall effect of all the above mentioned techniques would probably give a clean ,natural looking jeans with somewhat trouser looks. Here is a Evisu’s SS09 Milan Spring Summer Video
    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtWgbzmh-QQ&eurl=http://www.evisu.com/blog/2008/07/09/evisus-ss09-milan-spring-summer-video/]

    Related Links on Evisu:
    Evisu Autumn Winter ’08 Milan Men’s Show
    Evisu Autumn Winter’08 Milan Show Video
    Backstage photos at Milan ’09 Show

  • Effect of rupee appreciation on exports of Mens,Boys jeans to USA in 2007

    The appreciation of the Rupee against the USD has taken its toll on the exports of all textile and apparel products from India. There has been a general fall in exports of apparel items across the board..
    Lets have a look at how the rupee appreciation has affected the exports of Mens and Boys jeans from India to USA.. I have also taken comparative figures from Bangladesh to see how it fares vis-a-vis India..

    Exports of Mens/Boys jeans from India and Bangladesh to USA in 2006 and 2007

    2006(doz pcs) 2007(doz pcs) Change(%)
    India
    Ist quarter 24000 22000 -8
    2nd quarter 24000 33000 37
    3rd quarter 55000 63000 14
    4th quarter 33000
    Bangladesh
    1st quarter 205000 312000 52
    2nd quarter 390000 454000 16
    3rd quarter 599000 739000 23
    4th quarter 570000

    Source :US customs

    From the figures given above , we can see that the exports of jeans from India registered a fall of 8% in the first quarter of 2007 compared to the first quarter of 2006. However, the second and the third quarter have seen a steady increase in exports of jeans to US inspite of the appreciation of rupee.
    On the other hand, the exports from Bangladesh continue to register a robust increase in all the three quarters of 2007..Bangladesh,in any case, has a huge lead over India in exports of Jeans and it seems to be increasing the gap further.
    What is interesting is that the exports from India have not registered a fall despite the huge appreciation of rupee. This signifies that the additional capacities of jeans manufacturing have been created in India and the increase in exports would have been very significant, had the rupee not appreciated so much.
    However, the next 2 quarters would show whether the Indian companies can sustain the growth in exports despite rupee appreciation or not – though i believe that the exports may grow stably given the excess capacities available in the industry..

  • US imports of Mens/Boys jeans down 6.8% in 2007(Jan-Sept)

    The imports of Mens/Boys Jeans into US seems to have slowed down since the second quarter of this year. The total imports under this category is down by 6.8% .. This fall is significant in view of the boom that Denim was going through..

    US Import figures for M/B Jeans in 2007

    New Page 1

    Year Ist Quarter 2nd Quarter 3rd quarter Total % change
    2006 4.2 6.2 7.6 18.1  
    2007 4.1 5.7 7.0 16.8 -6.8%

    All figures are in Million Dozens.

    Source : US Customs

    Interesting…

  • US denim fabric imports Jan-Sept 2007 remain same as 2006

    It is very interesting to see the figures of imports of DENIM FABRICS into the US.
    As we all know, US has seen the boom in Premium Denim labels market in the 3 -4 years.
    As a result the main manufacturing of Jeans in the US is for these labels only. For price
    concious buyers, all the Jeans have to be imported as US is not competitive to do so.

    The figures of Imports of Denim for the periods Jan-Sept 2006 and 2007 are EXACTLY SAME.. This shows that the slowdown expected in the production of Premium Denim labels has not yet come and the manufacturing of Jeans is almost at the same levels as last year..
    However, what is interesting to note is the figures of exports of individual countries to the US in 2007. Lets have a look

    US IMPORTS OF DENIM FABRICS FROM JAN -SEPT 2007

    New Page 1

    Country Jan- Sept 2006 Jan-Sept 2007 % change
    World 34.37 million sq mtrs 34.37 0
    Italy 6.9 10.06 +45%
    China 8.57 8.59 +0.2%
    Taiwan 4.91 4.04 -17%
    Turkey 2.29 3.34 +50%
    Japan 4.0 2.95 -26%
    Mexico 3.47 2.50 -27%
    India 1.25 .14 -88%
           

    Note : All figures are in Million Square metres .

    Source : US Customs

    As we see above :
    a)The countries to lose their shares of exports pie are JAPAN, INDIA and MEXICO..
    JAPAN has lost some share to Italy as Italy has started to catch up with
    the Japanese denim and is able to offer similar quality at lower prices.
    INDIA – has been a laggard and has now totally lost the race. In any case, India was nowhere in the reckoning for the Premium Denim(even with companies like Arvind present here).
    MEXICO – has been losing share continously because of non- competitiveness.
    b) Out of the main gainers are ITALY and TURKEY.
    ITALY – as mentioned above , has tried to catch up with Japan and has succeeded to some
    extent.
    TURKEY – is the surprise gainer . Though they had been doing good denims, they seem to have come up with some good denims for the brands in US..

    It does portend well that the PRemium Denim is not losing the sheen as yet.. However, it may not last very long as Premium Denim also becomes commodotised..

  • What makes premium denims in L.A tick?

    Often people wonder why of all the places Los Angeles became the Premium Denim capital of the world. How did the process of globalisation reverse in case of premium denims where the production sent overseas came back to US ?
    L.A had a very developed denim production and large scale productions were done for companies like Tommy Hilfiger, Guess, Pepe,Abercombie & Fitch,Calvin Klein etc..
    Alongwith stitching, the facilities for washing and designing were quite developed.. However, as the orders for mass productions started going overseas, the producers were left with little choices . They had to either shut down or change the way they did business. Fortunately for them, Japan had revived the concept of Antique/Heritage denim where they were trying to replicate the Jeans from the 40s to 70s..
    The concept was picked up by L.A manufacturers and they focused themselves on making small quantities of high priced Premium Denims.. All the infrastructure was in place(see this article by NY times)
    The machine processes started getting replaced by hand processes (esp in washing). Companies like CAITAC GARMENT PROCESSING – which used to wash jeans for USD2 in bulk, started getting paid upto USD 30 for washing premium denims..Their sand blasting machines got replaced with various other alternative processes like balooning or small instruments which involved much more human touch – whether to create whiskers , distressed looks etc..Garment processors like Caitac became favourites of Premium denim companies like Sevens,Earl jeans,Earnest Sewn,True Religion etc..Later even Levi’s had to turn to Caitac to develop its premium denim line..

    Now most of the premium denim labels outsource their stitching and washing .. They focus on marketing and use companies like Caitac to do all their work..

    Now coming back to our question on why L.A became the Premium Denim capital :- It is because of availability of all infrastructure mentioned above . The companies could easily outsource their highly labour and specialised activities.. Biggest of all , there was a ready market nearby which was fired up with the Premium Denim trend …What other ingredients can one ask for to make a success of a business???

    Also check out this interesting Audio slide from NY times on L.A Denim

    la-denim-washing.jpg

  • Premium Denim Brand providing the best fit ?

    We all know about the importance of fit in the buying decision of a premium denim. It is estimated in various polls that fit contributed almost 85% to a buying decision related to Premium Denim.

    I think then its in place to know which brand – out of so many out there – provides the maximum satisfaction related to fits. Though I know that this is a subjective question – since a brand providing a good fit for one may not be good for other – it would be good to know which brand takes the most votes. I have considered important brands like 7 for all Mankind, True Religion, Earl Jeans, Rock & Republic,Paige, Nudie, Miss Sixty, J Brand,Evisu, Diesel etc etc.. Sorry for boring.. NOw you can go ahead and poll – Click here to reach the poll and select the Brand with best fit

    Click on View Results to see the result of this poll.. We have received over 200 votes till 21st Sept 2008

  • US imports of women/girls’ jeans 2000-2006

    In continuation of the figures that I provided on the imports of Mens/Boys Denim trousers in US, I think the next step was to clarify the status of imports of Women/Girls Denim Trousers(commonly known as Jeans!) into US.
    The figures are again quite interesting. The total imports in this category is LESS THAN THE IMPORTS OF MENS/BOYS Jeans.. Amazing isn’t it..There is a general impression that the women and girls buy more jeans. However, when we delve deep into the figures , we find that MEN are not to be left behind. Though the average price of a Women’s Jeans is more than that of Men, the men score in quantities.

    New Page 1

    Year Girls(qty in mill.) Women (qty in mill.) Average price (Girls) Average price(women) Total (mn. pcs) Value(USD Bn)
    2000 41.04 144.84 5.87 7.96 185.88 1.39
    2001 45.00 167.64 5.75 8.13 212.64 1.62
    2002 52.80 186.36 5.66 8.29 239.16 1.84
    2003 48.60 179.52 5.57 8.47 228.12 1.79
    2004 40.20 201.96 5.94 8.84 242.16 2.02
    2005 50.04 234.84 5.09 8.90 284.88 2.34
    2006 49.32 202.80 4.94 8.54 252.12 1.97
                 
                 

    Source : US Customs

    All price figures are in USD
    Some other important things to note are :

    a)The average price of a Girl Denim Trouser went down almost 16% in 2005 when quota was removed. However, the price of Women Jeans hardly dropped and showed great resilience.
    This was probably due to continued craze for Premium Jeans in 2005 – which had a fallout effect on normal jeans also.
    b)The imports of Women Jeans in 2006 has shown a drop of more than 10% ‘over 2005 figures. This is a clear indication of the slowdown in the imports of ‘Expensive denims in 2006. I had previously mentioned that the rate of growth of Premium denims has halved in the first few months of 2007 and it was reflected in the last few months of 2006 also.

    I feel that 2007 will also not be giving very good figures on imports of Women Denim trousers. Lets wait and see..