5 Fast Footwear Import Insights
Current Data Released is for March 2020

    1.   The volume of footwear imports sank in March to the smallest monthly tally since 2002.

  2.     Footwear imports in March were sharply lower year-over-year across the board in every major category FDRA tracks.

     3.    Shipments declined year-over-year from most key suppliers, especially China, off -46.0%.

      4.    Average duties per pair surged year-over-year at a double-digit rate for the seventh straight month.

     5 .    Average duties per pair from China surged even faster, while they declined again from the rest of the world.


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Steep Drops in Footwear Imports in March
Trump Reportedly Accelerating Efforts to Push Companies’ Sourcing and Manufacturing Out of China
President Donald Trump is reportedly accelerating his efforts to push global industrial supply chains out of China as he considers imposing new tariffs on Beijing over its management of the coronavirus outbreak.

According to Reuters, which cited officials “familiar with U.S. planning,” the Trump administration is “turbocharging” an initiative to remove companies’ sourcing and manufacturing bases outside of China — even if it means those supply chains would move to other nations that aren’t the U.S.

What’s more, the U.S. Commerce Department, State Department and other agencies are working on determining what types of manufacturing should be considered “essential” and how these goods would be able to produced outside of China.

New Sourcing Policy Trend: Country’s Paying Companies to Leave China
Footwear Materials Cost Report
A current issue that catches our attention this month: Container rates
While costs of a range of commodities used in footwear manufacturing and distribution remain unusually weak in response to the global coronavirus pandemic, ocean container freight rates are elevated. While stalled global demand for a range of commodities is pulling the Baltic Dry Index to a four-year low, cancelled sailings pushed ocean
container rates higher by mid-May. 
 

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Post-COVID-19: Possible Scenarios for Apparel Design, Sourcing and Production
The apparel supply chain will look very different in 12 months’ time. Operational and strategic responses to the coronavirus will have implications on product design, development, sourcing and manufacturing resiliency for months and years to come.
Here are some likely scenarios that the apparel industry can begin to prepare for now:

1. Post-Pandemic Supply Chain Consolidation
The pandemic has put the lights out for many SME manufacturers and suppliers in markets like India, China and Bangladesh, with government small-business support obsolete. Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers will be absorbed by larger entities to localize manufacturing and take advantage of the benefits of vertical integration for supply chain control, resiliency and risk management. Brands and retailers will find that the diversity of their supply chain partners may be changing in the months and years to come.