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
| 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..
