Denimandjeans | Global Trends, News and Reports | Worldwide

Category: US Denim Imports

  • 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.

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    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..

  • US Imports of Mens/Boys Jeans & Breeches 2000-2006

    US is the most important market for the Jeans. US imports huge quantities of denimwear from around the world.
    The following figures will reveal how big this market is really. I am giving herebelow the figures of only the Mens/Boys Jeans and Breeches into the US from the year 2000 to 2006.

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    Year Qty (Million pieces) Value (USD Billion) Average Price(USD/pc)
    2000 194.19 1.41 7.28
    2001 196.86 1.46 7.42
    2002 235.69 1.73 7.36
    2003 249.31 1.87 7.50
    2004 259.74 1.93 7.45
    2005 295.02 2.16 7.33
    2006 293.62 2.10 7.15

    Source : US Customs

    We can see that the market is really huge with almost 300 million jeans imported only for Mens/Boys in 2006 .
    The average price figures are though a little odd. It was expected that the average prices of jeans imported into US would have fallen significantly after quota removal. However, the figures do not reveal such a story. The prices are more or less stagnant around USD 7 – though a fall of about 5% is visible from 2004 to 2006.

    But we must not forget that the character of jeans imported into US has changed a little over a period of time. Previously the majority of jeans imported were made of Basic denims and in basic styles. However, slowly the composition of fabrics have changed and more value added – like rings, slubs ,multicounts etc – are being used. These have contributed in increasing the average prices of jeans sold to US. However, it still needs to be remembered that a huge quantity of jeans are still exported to US at prices of USD 4-6 on one hand and on the other ,jeans of USD 10-15and above are also imported in sizeable numbers. Thus bringing average prices to these levels

  • Exports of Denim fabrics from Japan to USA (Years 2000-2007)

    It may be interesting to see how much Japan exports to the US and the EU. I did an analysis and here are the results.The results are not very surprising because exports to both the markets show some similar trends.
    The year 2004 & 2005 have been the best for exports to both EU and US. Though for exports to US , 2006 has also been the best
    The prices have been more or less stable over a period of time . In EU also the prices /kg have been more or less stable and so is the case in US. However, US shows an increase in average prices in 2007
    The decline in exports of denim fabrics is visible in 2006 in EU and in 2007 in USA
    If we extrapolate the figures of 5 months of 2007 for USA, then approximately 5.5 million square mtrs will be exported to US in 2007 against 6.2 million sq mtrs in 2006.
    Lets have a look :

    Year Quantity(Sq.Mtrs) Value(1000 Yen) Value(million USD) Price(USD/Sq.Mtr)
    2000 765045 379121 3.13 4.09
    2001 600841 323281 2.67 4.44
    2002 2047052 1013449 8.37 4.09
    2003 3534981 1768710 14.61 4.13
    2004 7987713 3943224 32.58 4.07
    2005 6132694 3137537 25.93 4.22
    2006 6219223 3441724 28.44 4.57
    2007(Jan-May) 2230106 1272908 10.51 4.71

    Source: The Customs Deptt of Japan

    Note: The exchange rate of USD to Yen has been taken as the current rate of
    121 Yen/USD

  • US Jeanswear Industry facts

    Here are some quick facts of the US denim industry :

    2006 US Jeans sales     : USD 15.8 billion
    % of total apparel sales : 12.7% (thats a lot isn’t it?)
    Premium denim as % of total Jeans sales : 4.3% in 2006
    Growth of Premium denim sales in 2006 : 23% !
    Average price of jeans purchased by 19-24 years old : USD 32.88
    Average price of Jeans purchased by 25-34 years old : USD 28.29
    Average pairs of jeans with the US women : 8.1 and they wear it 4.19 times a week .. WHEW..

  • Total market for denim fabrics in the US

    The denim market in the US has been shrinking given the closure of many factories of both Denim Fabrics and the Garments due to high cost of production. The factories in US have not been able to bear the onslaught of the imports of cheaper garments from the Asian countries and have been closing down or relocating.
    What is the total market of Denim Fabrics in the USA?
    The total market for the fabric consists of the DOMESTIC PRODUCTION + IMPORTS of Denim(exports are negligible and have not been considered).
    The figures below will give a very good idea of the trend of the market for the fabrics in the US – which is obviously southwards .

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    Year Production(in '000 sq.mtrs) Prod. In Linear mtrs(million) Imports(in '000 sq mtrs) Imports(Million linear mtrs) Total Market for Denim in US Share of domestic companies(%)    
    2000 725178 468 133687 86 554 84.4    
    2001 620156 400 136528 88 488 82    
    2002 588160 379 159539 103 482 78.7    
    2003 512542 331 96153 62 393 84.2    
    2004 509885 329 88360 57 386 85.2    
    2005 418576 270 58270 38 308 87.8    
    2006 289780 187 44262 29 216 86.7    

    Source:Otexa
    We can clearly see that the production has fallen more than 60% from 468 million mtrs since the year 2000 to about 187 million mtrs in 2006.To put it into perspective, the total production of denim fabrics in India is about 440 million mtrs. The imports have fallen from 89 million mtrs in 2000 to only 29 million mtrs in 2006. The total market has also gone down by about 60% to 216 million mtrs. However, one interesting fact to notice is that the share of the domestic mills in the total market is almost constant all these years - about 85% . Though already known, I would like to again mention that still US is the biggest market in the world in terms of consumption of Denim Apparel ( though it is imported in apparel form).

  • Denim imports into US and exports to US from EU

    Everyone knows that the US denim industry has been sliding continuously due to rising costs due to which the US denim is becoming uncompetitive.
    But while this is true for the competition coming from the Asian countries, where does US stand against the EU ? EU fabric is not cheap and the American fabric should be able to compete with them. But it does not ….
    US Denim fabric loses out to the denim from EU on fashion. The US denim mills are not fashion oriented and are not able to compete with the EU on this count. Specially fabrics from countries like Italy has been making its mark in the US with niche high street brands going for either Japanese Denim or the Italian denim fabrics. The figures below will tell the story:

    Imports of Denim from USA in EU25
    Year Kgs Amount(Euro) Linear Mtrs Av.Price(Euro/kg) Av.Price(Euro/Mtr)
    2000 12155100 69153986 17364429 5.69 3.98
    2001 12826500 72871055 18323571 5.68 3.98
    2002 11576500 66774079 16537857 5.77 4.04
    2003 6162600 31563427 9480923 5.12 3.33
    2004 729000 3263745 1121538 4.48 2.91
    2005 181900 754907 279846 4.15 2.7
    63108165
    Total Imp. from USA = Approx 63 million mtrs
    Exports to USA = from EU25
    Year Kgs Amount(Euro) Linear Mtrs Av.Price(Euro/kg) Av.Price(Euro/Mtr)
    2000 3315900 17394492 4737000 5.25 3.67
    2001 1893600 17664059 2705143 9.33 6.53
    2002 2471500 24918142 3530714 10.08 7.06
    2003 2949000 25715051 4536923 8.72 5.67
    2004 5332000 45405347 8203077 8.52 5.54
    2005 5169400 45306088 7952923 8.76 5.7
    31665780
    Total Exp. to USA = Approx. 32 million mtrs

    Major points to note :
    a)Till the year 2000, EU and the US were almost neck to neck in terms of the prices of their fabrics.However, US was leading by a big margin in volumes.
    b)The graph of USA started to fall from the year 2003 – when both prices and volumes fell sharply.
    c)When we come to the year 2005 , we find that the US exports have become almost a trickle and even with these small volumes , the prices are less than 50% of that of EU prices.
    d)However, EU has not been able to achieve the kind of volume exports that US was able to do in previous years – mainly because EU deals more in fashion items which are used in smaller quantities.

  • What HTS codes cover denim imports into US?

    Normally denim is referred to by the most common HTS Code 520942 .
    However, the Category 225 for imports of Denim into USA, contains many more HTS codes which are used to determine the aggregate imports of Denim there. Have a look :

    HTS CODE DESCRIPTION
    ———- ————————————————–
    5209.42.0020 WOV FAB GT=85% COT GT 200 & LT=360 G/M2 YR D C B
    5209.42.0040 WOV FAB GT=85% COT GT 360 G/M2 YR DF CL BLUE DENIM
    5211.42.0020 WV FB CT LT 85% CT MX MMF (200-360 G/M2)
    5211.42.0040 WOV FAB GT 360M/G2 LT 85% CT MX MMF YDF BLUE DENIM
    5212.24.6020 OTH WOV FAB COT GT 200G/M2 YDC LT 36% W/FAH DENIM
    5512.19.0010 WV FB SYN GT=85% SYN GT=85% PLY OTH BLUE DENIM
    5512.29.0010 WV FB SYN ST GT=85% SYN GT=85% A/M OTH-BLUE DENIM
    5512.99.0010 WOV FAB SYN STAPLE GT=85% SYN STAPLE FIB NESOI
    5514.30.3210 WV FB SY LT 85% M C GT 170G/M2 YDC 3-4T PSF BLU DENIM
    5514.30.3910 WV FB SY LT 85% M C GT 170G/M2 YDC OT WV FB BL DENIM
    5514.32.0010* WV FB SY SF170G/M2 YDC 3-4T PSF BLUE DENIM
    5514.39.0010* WV FB SY SF170G/M2 YDC OT WV FB BL DENIM
    5515.11.0010 OTH WOV FAB SYN PLY S F M VIS RAY S F BLUE DENIM
    5515.19.0010 OTH WOV FAB SYN PLY ST FIB OTHER S F BLUE DENIM
    5515.29.0010 OTH WOV FAB SYN AC/MA ST FB OTHER BLUE DENIM
    5515.99.0010* OTH WOVEN FAB OF SYNTHETIC STAPLE FIBERS O BLUE DENIM
    5515.99.9010 OTH WOVEN FAB OF SYNTHETIC STAPLE FIBERS O BLUE DENIM
    5516.43.0010 WOV FAB LT 85% ART ST FB MX M/S COT YDF BLUE DENIM
    5516.93.0010 WOV FAB ARTIF STP FIB OTH YR DIF CLRS BLUE DENIM

    I was also not really aware that so many HTS CATEGORIES (19!)do cover denim imports into US. A good revelation….

  • US Import tariffs on Denim Fabrics

    2006
    TARIFFS on imports from Tariff Rates
    1 MFN Countries(Now called 8.40%
    Normal Trade Relations – NTR)
    2 Non- NTR 20.90%
    3 AGOA countries 0%
    4 CBI (Caribbean Basis Initiative) Countries 0%
    5 Morocco 3.30%
    6 Jordan 0%
    7 Singapore 0%
    8 Chile 0%
    9 Australia 0%
    10 Bahrain 0%
    11 CAFTA Countries 0%
    12 Andean Agreement Countries 0%
    13 NAFTA countries 0%
    Source- USITC