Worldwide T-shirt exports data by country totaled US$47 billion in 2018. That dollar amount reflects a 2.5% gain for all T-shirt exporters over the five-year period starting in 2014 when exported T-shirts were worth $45.8 billion. Year over year, the value of globally exported T-shirts rose by 4.9% from 2017 to 2018.
Among continents, Asia sold the highest dollar worth of exports for knitted or crocheted T-shirts (inclusive of all materials) during 2018 with shipments valued at $26 billion or 55.3% of overall T-shirt exports. In second place were European shippers at 31%. Smaller percentages of total T-shirt exports were sourced from Latin America (7.7%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean, North America (3.5%), Africa (2.6%) and Oceania (0.06%) led by Australia and New Zealand.
Cotton is the dominant material for T-shirt manufacturing. Cotton T-shirts accounted for $30.4 billion in international sales or almost two-thirds (64.7%) of total exported T-shirts. Similar apparel made from textiles other than cotton equaled $16.6 billion for the remaining 35.3%.
The 4-digit Harmonized Tariff System code prefix for knitted or crocheted T-shirt is 6109. Drilling down, cotton T-shirts fall under 610910 while T-shirts made from other materials are categorized as 610990.
Research Sources:
Alibaba, Supplier showroom for T-shirts. Accessed on June 3, 2018
Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on June 7, 2019
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on June 7, 2019
The World Factbook, Field Listing: Exports – Commodities, Central Intelligence Agency. Accessed on June 7, 2019
Trade Map, International Trade Centre. Accessed on June 7, 2019
Wikipedia, T-shirt. Accessed on June 3, 2018
