Census Bureau Data on the Textile Industry

Some recent articles suggest a re-emergence of textile manufacturing in the United States.  Two such articles are a New York Times article (click here) and a USA Today article (click here).  Data collected by the US Census Bureau and found at its website can also provide some insights into United States textile manufacturing activity.

Census Bureau data is provided on textile product shipment values per year from 1992 to 2013 for three textile industry sectors: textiles mills; textile products; and apparels.  Click here to find this data.

The Textile Mills and Apparel sectors had shipment declines from 1992 to their low-point shipment values during the 2007-2011 recession.  Textile Mills had a 3.8% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) decrease from 1992 to 2009, the year of the lowest shipments since 1992.  Since 2009, the Textile Mills sector has had a slight rebound of 1.9% CAGR. 

The Apparel Sector also had a dramatic decrease in shipments from 1992 to 2011 of 7.5% CAGR.  And, like the Textile Mills sector, Apparels has had a slight shipments increase of 1.5% CAGR from 2011.

The Textile Products sector shows a different pattern for annual shipments.  This sector actually increased in shipments from 1992 to 2005 by 2.5% CAGR.  Then, likely because of the recession in the 2006 to 2010 period, there was an annual decrease in shipments. But, since the low point in 2010, the shipments in this sector have increased at a 4.5% CAGR, which is higher than the 1992 to 2005 period.  This 4.5% could well be viewed as a re-emergence of textile manufacturing, but manufacturing in what the Census Bureau classifies as Textile Products.  Click here (search in 2012 on textile products) for some insights into what the Census Bureau considers as Textile Products.

As indicated in the articles referred to above, this re-emergence of textile manufacturing in the United States seems to have to do with the application of technology, for example, advances in processing equipment.  And the application of such technology might be best applied to obtain highest margins in areas where special products are made, such as might be found in the Census Bureau’s Textile Products sector; versus more routine textile mills and apparel manufacturing processes.  So, perhaps the application of technology is why a higher CAGR over recent years is seen for the Textile Products sector.