Average Price of EU Clothing Imports from Vietnam Down by 40%

Dec. 21, 2007 - PRLog -- Report Buyer, the online destination for business intelligence, has added a new report showing that the average price of EU clothing imports from Vietnam was slashed by 40% last year. At the same time, the average price of clothing imports from all sources rose by 1.9%. As a result of these changes, Vietnamese clothing prices were less than half of those from other sources.

“Trends in EU Textile and Clothing Imports”, available from http://www.reportbuyer.com/go/TXI00031, reports that the drop in prices- from Euro 11.29 per kg to Euro 6.76 per kg - coincided with a colossal 147% increase in the volume of imports from Vietnam. In fact, Vietnam became the EU’s fifth biggest clothing supplier in volume last year - although in value terms it did not even rank among the top ten suppliers because its prices were so low.

The report shows that the increase in supplies from Vietnam can be attributed largely to the introduction of safeguard quotas on Chinese products in mid-2005. The quotas - aimed at curbing growth in EU imports from China -were imposed on four categories of textile products and on six categories of clothing.

In the six clothing categories; T-shirts, brassieres, dresses, blouses, trousers and pullovers, growth in imports from Vietnam varied from 239% to 561%. All of these rates were well above the 147% increase in total clothing imports from the country. At the same time, the average price of Vietnamese supplies dropped by more than 40%.

According to the authors of the report, Vietnamese producers took advantage of the fact that Chinese producers were forced to reduce exports of the six categories because of quotas. In fact, China cut back its supplies of these products to the EU at rates varying from 30% to 51% last year.

It is expected that EU imports from Vietnam will continue to grow. That said, there is still room for growth in imports from China as Chinese exporters have failed to use all of their quota allocation. Indeed, China could increase its supplies of T-shirts by 94% without exceeding its quota allocation for 2007. In the case of trousers, Chinese supplies could rise by 72%.

The study shows that for 2008 the future is uncertain. EU imports from China are set for further substantial growth once quotas have been lifted at the end of 2007. That said, growth will be tempered by the fact that the European and Chinese authorities will monitor shipments, leaving open the possibility that further quotas may be imposed until the end of 2008 in the event of surges. In the meantime, retailers in Europe may prefer to maintain their contracts with Vietnamese suppliers – in order to avoid the risk of a repeat of the “Bra Wars” fiasco of 2005 which left Chinese goods stranded at European ports.

“Trends in EU Textile and Clothing Imports” is available from Report Buyer. For more information go to: http://www.reportbuyer.com/industry_manufacturing/textile...

Report Buyer product ID: TXI00031

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