Though the stalled automotive sector has taken a toll on the global fiber market, declining apparel sales have made it more vulnerable to the ongoing global recession. Apparel sales in the US declined by almost 63 per cent year-on-year in May this year, following an 87 per cent decline in April. In the EU27, retail sales at specialist textile, apparel, footwear and leather goods stores declined by 55 per cent and 64 per cent in March and April, year-on-year. In Spain, these sales declined by 90 per cent in April, while in Sweden they declined by 38 per cent.

Plummeting sales hit retailers hard. In the US, five national companies with revenues in excess of $22billion in 2019 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy by the end of May. And global brands such as Gap and Inditex reported significant operating losses in Q1. From January to April, the value of apparel imports by the US declined by 19 per cent, year-on-year, and a massive 42 per cent in April alone. In Europe, apparel imports dropped by around 13 per cent in the first four months of the year, compared with the same period in 2019. In April alone, the decline was 38 per cent year-on-year.