The textile reference desk
Duty by market, costing calculators, six worked cases, the buying calendar, the glossary and the sources behind every figure. Free, and nothing to sign up to.
Six reference pages for buying yarn, fabric and finished textiles, free, and with nothing to sign up to. The duty page sets import duty side by side by market. The calculators turn a count or a construction into a weight, and the worked cases cost six orders line by line, from nothing to the warehouse door. The calendar says when to buy, the glossary says what the words mean, and the sources page says where the numbers come from. None of it is a quote or a forecast. It tells you what to expect and what to question, and a mill’s written quotation is still the number you buy on.
The six reference pages
- Import duty What each market charges on cotton, yarn, fabric and garments, read line by line from the schedules; what Bangladesh, Pakistan and China charge on the way in; and the rules of origin that decide whether a zero rate is yours.
- Calculators and data files Every dataset we are permitted to redistribute, as a formatted spreadsheet with an explanation sheet inside it, shelved by what you buy rather than by what kind of file it is. And the ones we may not hand on, with the licence reason for each.
- Six worked cases, from nothing to warehouse door Tees to Dallas, sheet sets to California, yarn to Leicester, poplin to Jeddah, hoodies to Rotterdam and towels to Dubai: every line of the landed cost, with the placeholders marked so you can put your own figures in.
- Where our numbers come from Every source we read, what it costs and the licence that governs it; whether each of our own figures is fresh; and what publishes next.
- When to buy: the calendar The one seasonal price pattern that survives an honest test, the recurring dates that move factories and freight, and the Gulf retail year.
- The glossary The trade words used across this site, each defined in one plain sentence, grouped by where a buyer meets them.
Which page to open first
Choosing a country? Start with the duty page, because the duty into your market is part of the price of every origin. Costing an order you have already decided on? The calculators and the six worked cases do the arithmetic on numbers you can change, and fabric consumption per garment explains the fabric line, usually the largest in a garment cost. Reading a quote full of words you do not recognise? The glossary. Planning when to place the order? The calendar. Checking where a figure came from? The sources page.
The same six pages sit on the reference shelf of the market data section, beside the numbers pages and the buying guides. For everything on the site in one list, open the site map.
Common questions
Do I have to sign up to use the reference pages?
No. Nothing on them is gated, there is no account to open, and the calculators do not ask for an email address. Read them, download the files and use them.
Are the duty rates current?
The duty page prints the date the schedules were read and the exact tariff code beside each rate, so you can see how old a rate is and check it against the schedule yourself. Duty changes when a government changes it, so check the code again before you commit an order.
Why is all of this free?
Because the reference is not what we sell. We are paid a success fee by the supplier, and only when a shipment actually happens, so there is nothing to charge a reader for.
Can I use these figures in my own costing?
Yes, as planning figures. A calculated weight or a landed cost tells you what to expect and what to question. The mill's own allowances and the factory's own quote will differ, so check the result against a sealed sample and a written quotation before you commit.