Preliminary assessment of Vietnam international merchandise trade performance in the first 2 months of 2023

2. In the first 2 months of 2023, Vietnam‘s trade-in-goods totaled US dollars 95.83 billion in value terms, 13.4% downwards as compared with last year. In which, total merchandise exports value shrunk 10%, to US dollars 49.64 billion and the total merchandise imports value decreased 16.7% to US dollars 46.2 billion. Accordingly, Vietnam’s trade balance of this period was in the surplus of US dollars 3.44 billion.

3. Trade data disseminated recently by Vietnam Customs announced that the total value of exportation and importation by foreign direct invested (FDI) traders reached USD 34.72 billion in total for February of 2023, up by 3.6 % on month-on-month basis. FDI’s export value of USD 19.39 billion and FDI’s import value of USD 15.33 billion led to a trade surplus of USD 4.07 billion.

For Jan-Feb period, trade-in-goods by FDI traders totaled US dollars 68.21 billion, down by 11.8% on year-on-year basis. Total value of FDI exportation was USD 37.34 billion, decreased by 7.3%. On import side, the total value of those companies was USD 30.87 billion, down by 16.8%. As a result, FDI’s trade balance was in surplus of USD 6.47 billion.

Main Exports and Imports

4. The January of 2023 to February of 2023 growth in total merchandise exports was due to upwards of following products: computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (up by USD 766 million); machine, equipments, tools and instruments (up by USD 487 million).

On a year-on-year basis, exports decreased USD 5.55 billion, to USD 49.64 billion. The main products, which contributed to the reduction, were: textiles and garments (down by USD 1.11 billion); computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (down by USD 868 million); wood and wooden products (down by USD 784 million); foot-wears (down by USD 525 million); fishery products (down by USD 437 million); iron and steel (down by USD 357 million).

5. Trade statistics of Vietnam Customs shows that 4 biggest commodity groups in the first 2 months of 2023 were: telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof; computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof; machine, equipments, tools and instruments; textiles and garments.

Telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof reached USD 9.21 billion in export value and was up by 5.2% on year-on-year basis. The biggest trading partners of Vietnam importing this commodity were the China (up by 16% on year-on-year basis, to USD 2.58 billion); United States (down by 3.7% on year-on-year basis, to USD 1.63 billion); EU (27) (up by 26.2% on year-on-year basis, to USD 1.5 billion); Republic of Korea (down by 25.5% on year-on-year basis, to USD 569 million).

Computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof reached USD 7.11 billion in export value; went down 10.9% on year-on-year basis. The biggest trading partners of Vietnam importing this commodity were the United States (up by 7.9% on year-on-year basis, to USD 2.2 billion); China (down by 31.9% on year-on-year basis, to USD 1.06 billion); EU (27) (down by 29.2% on year-on-year basis, to USD 812 million); ASEAN (down by 0.3% on year-on-year basis, to USD 421 million).

Machine, equipments, tools and instruments reached USD 6.28 billion in export value; went down by 3.5% on year-on-year basis. The biggest trading partners of Vietnam importing this commodity were the United States (down by 14% on year-on-year basis, to USD 2.53 billion); EU (27) (up by 19% on year-on-year basis, to USD 981 million); China (up by 14.4% on year-on-year basis, to USD 443 million); Japan (down by 0.8% on year-on-year basis, to USD 425 million).

Textiles and garments reached USD 4.55 billion in export value; went down by 19.6% on year-on-year basis. The biggest trading partners of Vietnam importing this commodity were the United States (down by 32.5% on year-on-year basis, to USD 1.95 billion); Japan (up by 12.8% on year-on-year basis, to USD 537 million); Republic of Korea (up by 3.5% on year-on-year basis, to USD 505 million); EU (27) (down by 12.1% on year-on-year basis, to USD 511 million).

6. The January of 2023 to February of 2023 increase in total merchandise imports was due to the upturns of the commodities as follows: coal (up by USD 264 million); plastics (up by USD 195 million); iron and steel (up by USD 147 million).

On a year-on-year basis, the reduction in imports to USD 46.2 billion was mainly contributed by the downturns of the following products: telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (down by USD 2.35 billion); machine, equipments, tools and instruments (down by USD 1.46 billion); computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (down by USD 1.41 billion); iron and steel (down by USD 809 million).

7. Trade statistics of Vietnam Customs shows that 4 biggest commodity groups in the first 2 months of 2023 were: computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof; machine, equipments, tools and instruments; telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof; textile, leather and foot-wears materials and auxiliaries group.

Computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof reached USD 12.51 billion in import value; went down by 10.2% on year-on-year basis. The biggest trading partners of Vietnam, from which this commodity was originated, were China (down by 26.8% on year-on-year basis, to USD 1.12 billion); Taiwan (China) (down by 14%, to USD 1.66 billion); Japan (up by 24.6% on year-on-year basis, to USD 1.32 billion).

Machine, equipments, tools and instruments reached USD 5.62 billion in import value; went down 20.7% on year-on-year basis. The biggest trading partners of Vietnam, from which this commodity was originated, were China (down by 29% on year-on-year basis, to USD 2.66 billion); Republic of Korea (down by 15% on year-on-year basis, to USD 889 million); Japan (up by 0.3% on year-on-year basis, to USD 649 million).

Textile, leather and foot-wears materials and auxiliaries group reached USD 1.54 billion in import value; was down by 5.3% on year-on-year basis. The biggest trading partner of Vietnam, from which this commodity was originated, was China (down by 30.8% on year-on-year basis, to USD 1.56 billion); Republic of Korea (down by 15.4% on year-on-year basis, to USD 325 million); Taiwan (China) (down by 26.3%, to USD 314 million); Japan (down by 1.9%, to USD 148 million).

Telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof reached USD 1.32 billion in import value; was down by 64% on year-on-year basis. The biggest trading partner of Vietnam, from which this commodity was originated, was China (down by 25% on year-on-year basis, to USD 1.14 billion.

Trading Partners

8. For Jan-Feb period, Vietnamese merchandise trade with trading partners in Asia was totaled USD 62.8 billion in value terms, which moved down 12.4% as compared to the same period of 2022. Trade-in-goods of Vietnam with America was followed, which reached USD 18.9 billion and decreased by 18.2%. The values of other continents were Europe: USD 10.83 billion, down by 13.3%; Oceania: USD 2.25 billion, down by 3.5% and Africa: USD 1.07 billion, down by 3.7% in comparison with the same period of 2022.

9. In the first 2 months of 2023, 4 exporting markets of Vietnam with turnover of over USD 3 billion were: The United States of America (reached USD 13.03 billion); China (reached USD 7.39 billion); Republic of Korea (reached USD 3.79 billion) and Japan (reached USD 3.35 billion).

10. On import side, four partners exporting goods to Vietnam with turnover of over 2 billion were as follows: China (reached USD 13.93 billion); Republic of Korea (reached USD 7.72 billion); Japan (reached USD 3.54 billion); Taiwan (reached USD 2.95 billion).