I-Style in the US: January-August 2005 data

Ice has published (based on data from the US Department of Commerce) the results of the January/August 2005 exports in some of the major I-Style sectors in the United States.

A less penalizing euro/dollar exchange rate than last year and the recovery of American internal demand seem to have had a favorable affect on Italian exports.

Still suffering compared to the same period 2004 is knitwear (-10.2%), jewelry (-7.8%) and footwear (-6.9%). But there are encouraging results for clothing: overall exports stood at +2% and were supported by shirts (+12.7%), scarves (+8.5%), neckties (+7.9%) and men's suits (+4.6%). Leatherwear exports also performed well with a 4.3% growth compared to the first eight months of 2004.

The most dynamic sector is still perfumes/cosmetics and exports to the United States increased by over 20 percentage points (+21.8%). Eyewear is also doing well and in the US it has maintained the positive trend which began in the second half of 2004. Sunglasses are still the driving force with over 237 million dollars in exports, an upturn of 17.9% compared to January/August 2004. Frames are still substantially stable with a very small increase of around 1.2%.

Italian eyewear's market share in the United States, the sector's first reference market, stands at 33% for sunglasses, a growth of two points against the same period 2004, and just over 30% for frames.