US imports of knit shirts from China were up by about 1,258 per cent in the first three months this year over 2004, cotton trousers were up by 1,521 per cent and cotton and manmade fiber underwear by 308 per cent. Prices of cotton trousers sank from US$ 121 a unit to US$ 58, cotton knit shirts from US$ 68 to US$ 39 and cotton underwear from US$ 33 to US$ 17 a unit in just January.
The US is currently Sri Lanka’s biggest market for apparel with over half of our exports shipped there under some of the bigger brand labels.
The sink in prices and relatively empty order books over last year has local exporters worried that the business is shifting to China or elsewhere.
Not helping is the delay in trade concessions, including duty free access to the EU under its Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) scheme that has been shelved from April to June this year.
The duty free carrot that was an almost certainty this year also attracted a lot of potential business from large buyers like Tesco’s that has upped its presence here.
Commentaires
Il n'y a aucun commentaire sur cet article.