Preliminary assessment of Vietnam international merchandise trade performance in the first 4 months of 2020

2. In the first 4 months of 2020, Vietnam‘s trade-in-goods totaled US dollars 158.94 billion in value terms, 0.9% above the corresponding period of last year. As compared to result of a year earlier, total merchandise exports value rose 2%, to US dollars 80.86 billion and the total merchandise imports value was down 0.3% to US dollars 78.08 billion. Accordingly, Vietnam’s trade balance in the first months of 2020 was in the surplus of US dollars 2.78 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 98.51 billion in total for the January-April period of 2020, down by 1.5 % on year-on-year basis. Total value of FDI exportation was USD 53.57 billion, decreased by 2.5%. On import side, the total value of those companies was USD 44.94 billion, down by 0.2%.

Main Exports and Imports

4. The March of 2020 to April of 2020 decrease in total merchandise exports was due to the downwards in telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (down by USD 2.81 billion); textiles and garments (down by USD 729 million); computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (down by USD 652 million); machine, equipments, tools and instruments (down by USD 314 million);...

5. On a year-on-year basis, exports was up USD 1.62 billion, to USD 80.86 billion. The main products, which contributed to the increase, were computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (up by USD 2.51 billion); machine, equipments, tools and instruments (up by USD 1.46 billion); toys and sports requisites, parts and accessories thereof (up by USD 308 million); insulated wires and cables (up by USD 202 million);…

6. The March of 2020 to April of 2020 decrease in total merchandise imports was due to the downturns of the commodities as follows: computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (down by USD 1.23 billion); telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (up by USD 402 million); textiles, leather and foot-wears materials and auxiliaries group (down by USD 359 million); crude oil (down by USD 301 million); …

7. On a year-on-year basis, imports went down USD 0.22 billion, to USD 78.08 billion. The decrease in imports was mainly contributed by the downturns of the following products: petroleum products (down by USD 800 million); motor vehicles (down by USD 430 million); irons and steels (down by USD 405 million); computers, machine, equipments, tools and instruments (down by USD 290 million);…

Trading Partners

8. In the first 4 months of 2020, Vietnamese merchandise trade with trading partners in Asia was totaled USD 103.61 billion in value terms, which moved down 0.4% as compared to the same period of 2019. Trade-in-goods of Vietnam with America was followed, which reached USD 30.94 billion and increased by 10.3%. The values of other continents were Europe: USD 19.44 billion, down by 5.8%; Oceania: USD 3.18 billion, up by 8.2% and Africa: USD 1.77 billion, down by 4.7% in comparison with the same period of last year.

9. For January-April period of 2020, 4 exporting markets of Vietnam with turnover of over USD 6 billion were: The United States of America (reached USD 20.2 billion); China (reached USD 12.7 billion); Japan (reached USD 6.4 billion) and Republic of Korea (reached USD 6.2 billion).

10. On import side, four partners exporting goods to Vietnam with turnover of over 5 billion were as follows: China (reached USD 22.4 billion); Republic of Korea (reached USD 14.4 billion); Japan (reached USD 6.5 billion); Taiwan (reached USD 5.2 billion).