According to The Japan Textiles Importers Association report on apparel imports, based on Ministry of Finance trade statistics, the nation’s apparel imports in August 2016 decreased by 8.2% compared to the same month of last year to 269,151 million yen. The quantity increased by 15.7% to 358.24 million units.
It was the first time since March this year that the import quantity posted double-digit growth.
The August import quantity from ASEAN sharply grew by 33.3% to 87.2 million units. The share of ASEAN in the total import quantity rose 3.2 points to 24.3%. Leading the sharp growth in imports from ASEAN was Myanmar, from knitwear imports continued to grow at a sharp rate (up 90.8% to 2.39 million units in August). Following imports from Vietnam and Cambodia, August apparel imports from Myanmar climbed 91.2% to 7.46 million units.
Imports from Bangladesh also grew at a remarkable rate (up 75.6% to 18.03 million units). Especially, imports of Bangladeshi knitwear almost doubled (up 99.1% to 13.10 million units).
August apparel imports including accessories declined by 8.7% to 306.9 billion yen, while the volume grew by 11.6% to 109,352 tons. The January-August aggregate decreased by 8.6% year-on-year to 1,923.8 billion yen, but the quantity increased by 3.2% to 630,722 tons.