Vietnam experienced trade deficit nearly $700 million from Australia due to reversing trade

The movement of import – export activities between Vietnam and Australia in 2018 and 2019, calculation units is “billion USD”. Sketched by T. Bình

According to the information from the General Department of Vietnam Customs, by the end of July, the total export turnover of Vietnam to Australia achieved $1.934 billion while the import turnover was up to $2.61 billion.

Thus, by the end of July, Vietnam has experienced a trade deficit of nearly $700 million from Australia. The above movement is a reversal of the trade result between the two countries a year ago.

At the end of July last year, Vietnam exported to Australia a value of $2.307 billion and import turnover of $1.977 billion.

As a result, last year's trade balance was in favour of Vietnam with the trade surplus of $330 million.

Vietnam's largest export commodity groups to Australia in the first months of 2019 include phones and components; computers, electronic products and components; machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts; footwear; textile; and seafood with a turnover of $100 million/group or more.

However, a number of key commodity groups suffered a decrease in turnover over the same period last year.

These were phones and components reached $419 million, decreasing by nearly $80 million; machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts reached $131.5 million, a decrease of $70 million.

Notably, Vietnam's crude oil exports to Australia only reached $60 million, decreasing by nearly $200 million compared to the same period in 2018.

These groups of goods were the main reason causing the decrease of total export turnover of Vietnam by nearly $400 million compared to the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the imports from Australia increased sharply which resulted mainly from import turnover of coal.

Specifically, by the end of July, the whole country imported more than 8.5 million tons of coal from Australia, with a turnover of more than $937 million. This is the largest group of imports, accounting for nearly 36% of the total import turnover of the whole country in the first 7 months of the year.

The above result also increased significantly compared to the figure of over 2.7 million tons of coal, total turnover of $434 million of the same period in 2018.

By the end of July, four groups of goods imported from Australia with turnover of $100 million or more including: $328.6 million collected from minerals; base metal was $280 million; wheat was $157 million and steel scrap was $117 million.