GENEVA — Bolstered by the recovery of the U.S. economy, American textile production increased 3.4 percent in the second quarter compared to the same period last year, outperforming the average growth of 3 percent in global textile output, a United Nations report said.
Falling oil prices have “helped reduce the costs of production in the United States and make products more competitive,” said the quarterly report by the Vienna-based United Nations Industrial Development Organization.
Textile output expanded by 4.4 percent in developing countries but contracted by 1.4 percent in industrialized nations, said the report.
The slowdown in China’s textile manufacturing partly explains the lower growth increase for developing countries in the sector. China’s textile output in the second quarter grew by only 5.9 percent, a decrease compared with the 7.7 percent jump posted in the same quarter in 2014.
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However, results were mixed among major developing and emerging economies and also developed country textile producers, reflecting the divergent levels of growth in economies based in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Spurred by the U.S. recovery, textile production in neighboring Mexico in the second quarter grew by 8.1 percent, expanded by 1.6 percent in India, and by 4 percent in Egypt, but registered falls of 2 percent in Indonesia, 4.7 percent in Turkey, 0.8 percent in South Africa, and 11 percent in recession-hit Brazil.
In industrialized economies, textiles production grew by 3.4 percent in France, 1.6 percent in Germany, and 1.2 percent in Spain, but contracted by 5.3 percent in debt-burdened Italy, and also posted a 2.5 percent decline in Canada.
Similarly, in the same period of review, global apparel output averaged an increase of 3 percent. Developing and emerging economies posted an increase of 4.3 percent, but registered a fall of 0.8 percent in industrialized economies.
In the robust Indian economy, apparel output during the second quarter increased by 17.6 percent, 4.2 percent in China, 7 percent in Mexico, 9.2 percent in Peru, and by 4.4 percent in South Africa, but posted falls of 6.5 percent in Brazil, 10.6 percent in Indonesia, and 1.1 percent in Turkey, UNIDO data show.
Among industrialized economies, apparel output increased by 3.2 percent in Italy but experienced declines of 2.1 percent in the United States, 9.5 percent in Germany, and 9.3 percent in France.
Overall, global manufacturing rose by 2.5 percent during the second quarter compared to the same period last year with output up 0.7 percent in industrialized economies and 5.2 percent in developing economies.