Preliminary assessment of Vietnam international merchandise trade performance in the first quarter of 2018

2. From the beginning to March of 2018, Vietnam‘s trade-in-goods totaled US dollars 108.43 billion in value terms, 18.9% above the corresponding period of last year. On year-on-year basis, total merchandise exports value rose 24.8%, to US dollars 55.56 billion and the total merchandise imports value increased 13.3% to US dollars 52.87 billion. Accordingly, Vietnam’s trade balance in the first quarter of 2018 was in the surplus of US dollars 2.69 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 71.47 billion in total from beginning to March 2018, up by 20.8% as compared to the result of corresponding period of 2017. Total value of FDI exportation was USD 39.76 billion, went up by 27.1 %. On import side, the total value of those companies was USD 31.71 billion, went up by 13.6%.

Main Exports and Imports

4. On month-on-month basis, an increase in total merchandise exports was due to the upturns in telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (up by USD 1.87 billion); textiles and garments (up by USD 689 million); computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (up by USD 533 million); machine, equipment, tools and instruments (up by USD 504 million)…

5. On a year-on-year basis, exports expanded USD 11.05 billion. The main products, which contributed to the increase, were telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (up by USD 4.83 billion); textiles and garments (up by USD 831 million); machine, equipment, tools and instruments (up by USD 822 million); computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (up by USD 781 million)...

6. On month-on-month basis, an expansion in total merchandise imports was due to the downturns of the commodities as follows: machine, equipment, tools and instruments (up by USD 747 million); computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (up by USD 667 million); other base metal (up by USD 277 million); …

7 . On a year-on-year basis, imports went up USD 6.22 billion. The growth in imports was mainly contributed by the upturns of the following products: computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (up by USD 2.49 billion); petroleum products (up by USD 582 million); other base metals (up by USD 399 million); telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (up by USD 385 million) …

Trading Partners

8. In the first quarter of 2018, Vietnamese merchandise trade with trading partners in Asia was totaled USD 72.49 billion in value terms, which moved up 18.6% as compared to the same period of 2017. Trade-in-goods of Vietnam with America was followed, which reached USD 17.32 billion and increased by 17.8%. The values of other continents were Europe: USD 15 billion, up by 20.1%; Oceania: USD 2.04 billion, up by 27.3% and Africa: USD 1.59 billion, up by 27.7% in comparison with the same period of last year.

9. For January-March period of 2018, 5 importing markets of Vietnam with turnover of over USD 2 billion were: The United States of America (reached USD 10.3 billion); China (reached USD 8.3 billion); Republic of Korea (reached USD 4.4 billion); Japan (reached USD 4.3 billion); Hong Kong (reached USD 2.1 billion.

10. According to the following chart, top 3 big sources of Vietnam’s imports were as follows: China (reached USD 13.7 billion); Republic of Korea (reached USD 11.6 billion); Japan (reached USD 4.3 billion).