The United States receives a great portion of its overseas shipping container imports from various source countries throughout the world, including Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Honduras and Pakistan to name a few, but nearly half of all U.S. imports of apparel is provided by one single industrial giant: China.

“China is still the 500-pound gorilla in the room,” says Hubert Wiesenmaier, Executive Director of the AISA (American Import Shippers Association), which negotiates shipping container freight contracts for U.S. textile, garment and footwear importers. “As far as sourcing is concerned, nothing has changed. China is still where our members, who are wholesalers, are buying and where the carriers are focusing their resources.”

Overseas Shipping Container Apparel Imports to the U.S.

Not only does China provide the greatest number of overseas shipping apparel imports to the U.S. at present, but its share of the U.S. apparel import market is actually increasing at a much more rapid rate than all other U.S. apparel importers combined.

Importing from other countries may offer specific benefits such as:

• well-known name brands
  unique product quality
  lower per-unit prices

However, there are also various caveats to consider, including:

• regional instabilities
• diminished credibility factors, (i.e. Bangladesh factory tragedies in the news)
• inhibitive inspection processes
• restrictive overseas shipping capabilities.

The bottom line is that China will likely remain the top source of overseas shipping container apparel imports to the United States in the foreseeable future because it simply has a far better developed transportation and port infrastructure than that of any other overseas apparel source countries. These advanced systems and technology make China a more reliable and effective overseas shipping option than any other country importing to the United States.

“China has it all,” said Julie Hughes, executive director of the USA-ITA (The United States Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel). “They have modern deep-water ports. They have the roads that go directly from the factory to the deep-water port. They can handle everything terrifically for the transportation guys. They offer responsiveness, quality, the ability to deliver on time, meeting the demand of buyers and still at a price that is competitive.”

“Vietnam is important, but it is nowhere near the scale that we see in China,” Hughes said. Although growing, Vietnam faces limited potential because of concerns about the infrastructure, water issues, and other factors that can’t be resolved easily. “Is Vietnam going to challenge China? I don’t think there is any country right now that would appear to challenge China for the top spot,” Hughes said.

As is demonstrated by the power of advanced transportation and shipping port infrastructure in China, the ease and methods of overseas shipping make all the difference in producing the most effective bottom line result for industrial import and export commerce.

At ETC International, our overseas shipping container network has been serving companies in need of commercial and industrial cargo imports since 1984. With nearly 30 years experience in overseas import and export container shipping, we have an expert understanding of all the ins-and-outs of commercial ocean vessel transport. As a result, we are able to provide invaluable information to our commercial clients to help them make the most of their shipping dollars. We provide all the details a company needs to import and export consumer goods and industrial distributions.

We are happy to start by providing a no-cost, hassle-free rate quote on overseas shipping container imports and exports for manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers. From there, we can discuss additional considerations of the overseas shipping process, so your business can reliably ship goods to paying customers or receive goods from overseas container importers.

Get your convenient online rate quote right here: