Denim Fabric And Apparel Consumption in US

US has been the largest market for denim apparel consumption for a long time , till it was recently overtaken by China as the world’s number one market.  But still with a per capita consumption of about 2 jeans per annum, the country is a huge 2nd largest market in the world . Denim fabric and apparel , both of which used to be  produced in US in large quantities have come down to a small number . We will look in this report at the following aspects of US denim supply chain :

a) Denim fabric consumption in US (2009-2011)  : This table takes into consideration  the fabric production, fabric imports , fabric exports and final consumption of denim fabrics in US for conversion into apparel.

b) Denim apparel production in US (2009-2011) 

c) Denim apparel consumption in US (2009-2011)

NB : The 2012 figures are being finalized and will be updated soon in this report.

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Fabric consumption in US 2009-0211 (in million sq mtrs)

From the above table we can see that the production of denim fabrics in US in the period 2009-2011 is almost stable with some fall  in production. The fabric exports are large – almost closing near the production figures and with the imports, the country utilized about 43 million mtrs of denim for domestic consumption . But for US, with its high manufacturing costs, this figure (though much lesser than the figures of last  2 years) is still quite a significant one.

Now, we come the apparel production and consumption figures.  Lets look at the table below .

Denim apparel production and consumption in USA

Note: About 2 sq mtrs of fabric is assumed to have been used to convert into one denim apparel

From the above table, we can see that the denim apparel consumption in US took a drastic drop in 2011 as compared to 2009 and 2010. This drop mainly occured from the fall in imported apparel and also a significant fall in apparel production in the US. But it needs to be remembered that the years are not water tight compartments and the consumption of one year is a actually a reflection of imports and production done in the previous year and so on for the next year. But, in general there has been a steep fall in the denim apparel consumption. Also, it needs to be reckoned that the US demand has been not growing too much over the last decade. The demand is cyclic and comes back to similar levels after experiencing a fall down for 1-2 years. This portends that in 2013-14, we are going to see decent improvement in demand of denim apparel in US.

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