Among continents, suppliers in Asia sold the highest dollar worth of exports for knitted or crocheted T-shirts (inclusive of all types of materials) during 2019 with shipments valued at $26.5 billion or 55.9% of overall T-shirt exports. In second place were European shippers at 30.4%. Smaller percentages of total T-shirt exports were sourced from Latin America (7.7%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean, North America (3.7%), Africa (2.3%) and Oceania (0.04%) led by Australia and Fiji.
Cotton is the dominant material for T-shirt manufacturing. Cotton T-shirts accounted for $32 billion in international sales or about two-thirds (67.5%) of total exported T-shirts. Similar apparel made from textiles other than cotton equaled $15.3 billion for the remaining 32.5%.
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.
T-shirt Exports by Country
Overall
Below are the 15 countries that exported the highest dollar value worth of T-shirts (regardless of source materials) during 2019.
- China: US$7.4 billion (15.7% of total T-shirt exports)
- Bangladesh: $6.7 billion (14.1%)
- Turkey: $2.73 billion (5.8%)
- India: $2.66 billion (5.6%)
- Germany: $2.4 billion (5.1%)
- Vietnam: $2.2 billion (4.7%)
- Italy: $1.8 billion (3.8%)
- Netherlands: $1.5 billion (3.1%)
- Spain: $1.44 billion (3%)
- Belgium: $1.43 billion (3%)
- Cambodia: $1.2 billion (2.4%)
- Honduras: $1.1 billion (2.2%)
- France: $1.1 billion (2.2%)
- Portugal: $972.4 million (2.1%)
- Mexico: $905 million (1.9%)
The listed 15 countries shipped 74.8% of global T-shirt exports in 2019 by value.
Among the above countries, the fastest-growing T-shirt exporters since 2015 were: Honduras (up 227,010%), Netherlands (up 75%), Italy (up 59.1%) and Germany (up 29.1%).
Four countries posted declines in their exported T-shirt sales namely: China (down -22%), Turkey (down -8.5%), India (down -6.9%) and Cambodia (down -2.1%).
Cotton
T-shirt Exports by Country: Cotton
Below are the 15 countries that exported the highest dollar value worth of cotton T-shirts during 2019.
- Bangladesh: US$5.8 billion (18.3% of exported cotton T-shirts)
- China: $3.7 billion (11.7%)
- India: $2 billion (6.2%)
- Turkey: $1.8 billion (5.5%)
- Germany: $1.6 billion (5.1%)
- Italy: $1.4 billion (4.5%)
- Vietnam: $1.2 billion (3.8%)
- Netherlands: $1.1 billion (3.6%)
- Spain: $1 billion (3.2%)
- Honduras: $782.2 million (2.4%)
- France: $765.7 million (2.4%)
- Belgium: $755.1 million (2.4%)
- Portugal: $734 million (2.3%)
- United States: $634.7 million (2%)
- United Kingdom: $613.2 million (1.9%)
The listed 15 countries shipped 75.3% of global cotton T-shirts exports in 2018 by value.
Among the above countries, the fastest-growing exporters of cotton T-shirts since 2015 were: Honduras (up 168,115%), Italy (up 92.6%), Netherlands (up 79.1%) and Spain (up 73.1%).
China was the lone top supplier to post a decline in its exported cotton T-shirts sales via an -18.1% drop.
Other Textiles
T-shirt Exports by Country: Non-Cotton Textiles
Below are the 15 countries that, during 2019, exported the highest dollar value worth of T-shirts made from textile materials other than cotton.
- China: US$3.7 billion (23.9% of exported non-cotton T-shirts)
- Vietnam: $998.5 million (6.5%)
- Turkey: $973.1 million (6.3%)
- Bangladesh: $823.8 million (5.4%)
- Germany: $795.3 million (5.2%)
- Belgium: $670.2 million (4.4%)
- India: $667.7 million (4.3%)
- Cambodia: $580.8 million (3.8%)
- Spain: $418.8 million (2.7%)
- Italy: $351.4 million (2.3%)
- Netherlands: $345.7 million (2.2%)
- Mexico: $306.8 million (2%)
- France: $292.5 million (1.9%)
- Indonesia: $285.2 million (1.9%)
- Honduras: $280.7 million (1.8%)
The listed 15 countries shipped 74.6% of global non-cotton T-shirts exports in 2019 by value.
Among the above countries, the fastest-growing exporters of non-cotton T-shirts since 2015 were: Honduras (up 9,355,533%), Bangladesh (up 164.3%), Cambodia (up 97.2%) and Netherlands (up 62.6%).
Those countries that posted sales declines in their exported non-cotton T-shirts were led by: India (down -38.1%), Turkey (down -33.6%), China (down -26.2%), Spain (down -22.9%) and Mexico (down -17.8%).
Companies
T-shirt Exporting Companies
According to global trading platform Alibaba, the following suppliers are examples of established T-shirt companies:
- Fab Collections Limited (Bangladesh)
- Herbert Georg Santura (Portugal)
- Idea Group IGM SRL (Italy)
- Luxiberg (France)
- Nanchang Dongshen Knitted Garment Co, Ltd (China)
- NFS Trade International (Germany)
- PBM Polytex Limited (India)
- Ruma North America Group S de RL de CV (Mexico)
- Sky Apparel Limited (Turkey)
- Vietgo Company Limited (Vietnam)
The home-country location for each business is shown within parentheses.
See also Leather Shoes Exports by Country, Cotton Exports by Country, Cotton Imports by Country and Top Exported Baby Clothing Sales
Research Sources:
Alibaba, Supplier showroom for T-shirts. Accessed on May 11, 2020
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Field Listing: Exports – Commodities. Accessed on May 11, 2020
Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on May 11, 2020
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on May 11, 2020
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on May 11, 2020
Wikipedia, T-shirt. Accessed on June 3, 2019