Bangladesh's apparel and home textile exports in Q1 kept high growth

The latest data showed that Bangladesh's apparel exports in Mar 2022 were 3.93 billion USD, up 60.1% year-on-year, 12% month-on-month and 39.3% from the same period in 2019. Exports rose by 45.1% in the first quarter from a year earlier, up 30% from the same period in 2019. The above showed that Bangladesh's apparel exports performed well in the first quarter and are still growing at a high speed.

Bangladesh's knitted apparel exports accounted for more than half, hovering below 50% for a long time from 2012 to 2019. Since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, the export structure has changed, and the proportion of Bangladesh's knitted apparel has begun to rise, reaching 54.7% last year and declined slightly in the first quarter of this year.

The change in apparel export structure was related to the change in consumption habits brought about by the pandemic. Stay-at-home consumers drove demand for knitted apparel and home textiles increased. Last year, with the increase in business activities, the demand for woven apparel gradually recovered, but that for knitted apparel did not decline, indicating that demand still existed. In addition, Bangladesh's home textile exports have performed well since the outbreak of the pandemic, with home textile exports reaching 1.3 billion USD last year and still growing at a high speed in the first quarter of this year.

Bangladesh's home textile exports were around 800 million USD in 2016-2019. In 2020, home textile exports soared to 936 million USD, and reached 1.3 billion USD in 2021. In the first quarter of this year, home textile exports reached 440 million USD, up 47.8% over the same period last year. The export value has reached 30% of that in last year, and 53% compared with the average value in 2016-2019. It can be seen that the Bangladesh's home textile export market was in a better situation. In comparison, the situation of China's home textile exports in the first quarter of this year was not ideal. Judging from the sales ratio of the home textile market in Jiangsu Nantong, the performance was obviously lower than that of last year, and this phenomenon has begun to appear since the fourth quarter of last year, and it was even more prominent in the first quarter of 2022. From the Bangladesh’s home textile export data, we can see that some home textile orders may indeed be transferred to some markets such as Bangladesh.

60% of Bangladesh's apparel and home textiles were exported to the European Union and 20% to the United States, while the proportion of exports to other markets was relatively small. Judging from the situation of Bangladesh's exports to Europe and the United States in the first quarter, it is expected that consumer demand from Europe and the United States may perform well. However, in the context of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the gradual completion of the global clothing inventory process and high energy prices, Bangladesh's textile and apparel demand growth in the second quarter is expected to face pressure.