An Investigation into the Bale Equivalence of U.S. Textile Imports

An understanding of the composition of end-uses for cotton (i.e., in apparel and home textiles) can be seen as a first step for developing methods for increasing demand for cotton fiber. A challenge in developing such an understanding can be the difficulty in converting apparel and home textile products into their bale equivalence. For the U.S. market, it is possible to obtain estimates for bale equivalence by combining data from the Department of Commerce with a set of factors from the USDA that accommodate for variables like waste lost in processing. Using these two data sources, it is possible to build a monthly database to track changes in import volume and composition. This database can be applied to a range of research questions. At a basic level, it can be used to determine an overview of the most important product categories for cotton end-use. By leveraging attributes other than weight (i.e., unit counts), the database can also be used to develop measures for changes in average product weight over time. This research examines several applications of the import database, including the establishment of an index of average product weights. Discussion explores ability of an index that controls for changes in weight over time to enhance models for the estimation and prediction of the bale equivalence of import volumes.