US RMG Market: Is Bangladesh Losing It?

Bangladesh is losing USA’s Ready Made Garments (RMG) market. Recent statistics shows that in continuation of 2014 Bangladeshi RMG sector losing global apparel market and it seems US buyers are showing aversion to Bangladeshi RMG sector. In January 2015, Bangladesh exported garments of 44.7 crore US$ to USA while in January 2014 it was 48 crore. So RMG export to US market slopes down 7.16 percent within one year. Considering January 2014 to current month it is the largest amount of subsidence rate. Production rate of RMG manufacturing is also decreasing. In January 2015, Bangladesh exported 152100000 square metres of garments which is 8.38 percent less than the specified month of previous year.

At the starting of 2014 the utmost export GDP growth was last seen and it was 3.82 percent. From February to December of 2014 the export of RMG to US market was declined rapidly and the range of declination was 0.20 percent to 3.00 percent. Bangladesh exported garments worth 483 crore US$ in 2014 which is 2.29 percent less than 2013. Even in 2015, the rate of the export declination is still increasing.

On February 4, 2015 US Department of Commerce and Office of Textile and Apparels (OTEXA) have published a statistics, it shows that in January 2015 USA imported RMG of 652 crore US$ from 104 different countries and it is 4.60 percent less than the specified month of previous year. According to the statistics, the top six countries are-

RANK	COUNTRY	AMOUNT OF IMPORT (CRORE US$)
01	China	235
02	Vietnam	79
03	Bangladesh	44.70
04	Indonesia	41
05	India	30
06	Mexico	26

Though the chart shows that Bangladesh is securing the third position but Bangladesh have experienced reduction of GDP in January 2015 while India and Vietnam ensured GDP growth of 5.24 percent and 1.34 percent respectively.

Graph showing that Bangladesh is in third place

The prime cause of losing US market is the “Rana Plaza Tragedy” but recent political turmoil is also responsible for it. Bangladesh Garment Manufactures & Exporters Association (BGMEA) personnel said current political turbulence is leading the textile sector towards destruction. During ‘Dhaka Apparel Summit 2014’ on 7-9 December, many buyers from USA expressed their intentness to import RMG from Bangladesh but they are concerned about the political unrest. Recently representatives of ‘Buyer’s Forum’ said that they are trying to expand their business in Bangladesh but the circumstances are not so much favorable, their commentary is “we want to give more work order, but you are unable to take it”.

Reported by-
Md. Tanvirul Haque Bhuiyan
Reporter of Textile Tribune
Dept. of Apparel Manufacturing, NITER.
Email : mukutex@gmail.com

5:15 AM