One more commodity group become “billion USD” in the first quarter of 2018

Chart of turnover of 11 “billion USD” commodity groups between 2018 and 2017 (by the end of quarter 1). Sketched by T.Bình

Two new categories worth $US 1 billion in the first quarter included cameras, camcorders and components reaching $US 1.05 billion, which increased by $US 310 million over the same period last year; The second largest group is steel products that reached $US 1.04 billion, increased by $US 380 million.

The major export markets for iron and steel is Cambodia, that reached nearly $US 180 million (at the end of first quarter); USA was $US 179 million; Indonesia with $US 155 million; Malaysia $US 120 million... Meanwhile, the largest export market of cameras, camcorders and components is China with turnover of more than $US 504 million, followed by Hong Kong with nearly $US 280 million; South Korea is $US 92 million; Japan is nearly $US 41 million...

Overall, in the first quarter of the year, the 11 key export categories have strong growth compared to the same period last year. Only coffee has a slight increase which rose by 0.1% compared with the same period last year and achieved $US 1.028 billion.

Among big exported commodities groups, the items with the biggest increase was telephone and accessories with an increase of nearly $US 4.5 billion; while other groups increased from a few hundred to nearly $US 1 billion over the same period of 2017.

With a total value of $US 41.348 billion, the 11 key export items accounted for 74.4% of total export turnover of the country in the first quarter of 2018.