Book Exports Up 7.8% In Six-Month Period

Book exports posted solid gains in the first half of 2004, increasing 7.8%, to $829.3 million. Moreover, exports to America's top 15 export markets rose 9.8% in the period, to $751.9 million.

Exports to Canada, America's largest international market, rose 6.9% in the first half of 2004, to $362.7 million. Exports to the U.K. increased at a healthy 15.9% rate, to $150.3 million, while exports to Japan rose 12.5%, to $51.3 million. Exports to Australia fell 3.3%, to $35.8 million. The largest gain among America's largest trading partners was in exports to Singapore, which had a 40.1% increase—to $32.8 million—a gain that tied Singapore with Mexico as the fifth largest market for U.S. books. Exports to Mexico rose 9.6%.

Among the major subject categories, exports of textbooks rose 40% in the first six months, to $206.4 million. Exports of hardcovers and mass market paperbacks also had solid gains in the period, with exports rising by 32% in both segments, putting mass market exports at $116.2 million and hardcover shipments at $68.6 million. Bible exports increased 13.8%, to $40 million.

Boosted in part by a 43.8% increase in imports from China, books imported into the U.S. rose 10.9% in the first half of 2004, to $847.7 million. Imports from China, which is becoming a major manufacturing site for books, hit $210.7 million in the first six months of 2004. Imports from the U.K. fell 11.6% in the six-month period, to $132.2 million, while imports from Canada increased 9.8%, to $140.7 million, pushing Canada ahead of the U.K. as the second-largest exporter of books to the U.S. Imports from Hong Kong fell 8.8%, to $77.8 million, while imports from Singapore rose 17.3%.

U.S. Book Exports, January—June 2003—2004 ($ in millions)