By Brenda Rocha @ Shutterstock.com
Arthur Friedman reports that shipments of denim jeans to America from China have plummeted by 63% in the first two months of 2020. He writes:
U.S. denim imports were down significantly in the first two months of the year, and March portends to be nothing short of a disaster.
U.S. companies imported 14.32 percent less blue denim apparel–97 percent of which is jeans–for the year to date through February for a value of $497.08 million. The drop-off was led by a 63 percent decline from China to $55.77 million, as factories shut down as coronavirus swept through the country. Many of those facilities are back in operations, but undoubtedly were shipping little merchandise in March as stores across the U.S. and Europe shut down and many retailers and brands cancelled orders from the bottoming out of consumer demand as the pandemic spread across the globe.
Hopefully, after the coronavirus crisis, Americans will continue to avoid Chinese jeans, opting instead for Made in America labels.
