China lost both value and market share in every one of the 34 apparel headings the US tracks under HS Chapters 61 and 62 during January–May 2026, according to a Fibre2Fashion analysis of TexPro trade data.

The finding signals a retreat far broader than headline country-level numbers suggest. It was not concentrated in a handful of labour-intensive products. China's decline cut across all 34 four-digit knit and woven apparel headings.

US apparel imports from the world also contracted over the same five-month period. Imports from China fell from roughly their prior-year level by a margin that, on its own, accounted for nearly the bulk of the entire contraction in the US market, according to TexPro. China's share of the TexPro basket dropped year on year, continuing a slide visible since January–May 2024.

What does the retreat mean for sourcing?

The redistribution picture is uneven. Fibre2Fashion identifies two distinct dynamics behind China's falling shipments:

• Some orders moved to rival suppliers, with Cambodia, Egypt, Indonesia and Vietnam named as gainers.
• Some US demand has simply disappeared rather than relocated.

The gains recorded by those four countries, however, added up to far less than China's loss — confirming that a substantial share of the volume was not resourced but lost to a shrinking market.

Notably, import value from non-China origins rose in only a limited number of the 34 headings, underscoring how few alternative supply bases are absorbing the volume at scale.

What comes next for H2 decisions?

The analysis flags a new tariff map reshaping second-half sourcing decisions. For sourcing and supply-chain teams, the practical read is threefold:

• Capacity in Cambodia, Egypt, Indonesia and Vietnam is gaining orders, but not enough to replace China's lost volume.
• Overall US demand for HS61–62 apparel is contracting, so re-sourcing strategies must distinguish between redistributed and vanished demand.
• New H2 tariff schedules will further reorder the cost calculus by origin.

The analysis, published 17 August 2026, draws on TexPro trade data covering January–May 2026 and frames the 34-heading loss as the baseline against which H2 sourcing shifts should be measured.