The US has imported $7.077 billion worth of textiles and apparels in March 2013, little lower than imports of $8.339 billion worth of goods made a month earlier, according to the data released by the US Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA).

Quantity-wise, too, US textile and garment imports dipped to 3.795 billion square metre equivalents (SMEs) in March 2013, compared to 4.543 billion SMEs of imports in February, the data shows.

In terms of value, apparels constituted a major segment of the overall textiles and garment imports made by the US during the month. The US imported $5.366 worth of clothing items equaling 1.69 billion SMEs during the period.

The value of non-apparel imports during the month stood at $1.71 billion. In terms of quantity, these imports totaled 2.105 billion SMEs. Of this, yarn imports accounted for $126.584 million, while fabric imports contributed $429.872 million. The imports of other textile products like home textiles were worth $1.154 billion.

In March 2013, the US imported 13.769 million SMEs of woolen items valued at $224.88 million. In comparison, the quantity of man-made fibre products imported by the US was much greater at 2.32 billion SMEs, valued at $2.928 billion.

In the year ending March 2013, total US textile and apparel imports stood at $101.691 billion, which is a marginal decrease from $102.189 billion worth of textiles and clothing imported during the year ending March 2012.

In 2012, the US spent $100.932 billion on import of 54.045 billion SMEs of textiles and garments.