Of US$117 billion of imports, Chinese goods account for 30%

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Market shares from three large markets of the country’s total imports in the first six months of 2020. Chart: T. Binh

Three ten-billion-dollar commodities

According to the latest information from the General Department of Customs, the country spent US$117.33 billion on importing goods, a year-on-year decline of 2.9%.

This decline was due to the downward trend of many key commodities.

They were: petroleum reduced 5% in volume and 38.75% in value, CBU cars of all kinds fell nearly half in volume and value; car accessories and components fell 17.3% in value; iron and steel of all kinds fell 6.2% in volume and 16.6% in value; vegetables fell 40.5% in value, raw materials and accessories for textile, garment and footwear industry fell 15.9% in value; machinery, equipment and tools and parts thereof fell 4.5% in value.

In the first half of 2020, the General Department of Customs noted that there were three imported commodity groups reaching a turnover of US$10 billion or more. This number was equivalent to the same period in 2019, but the value of two of three of the commodity groups decreased compared to a year ago.

Computers, electronic products and components were still the leading groups with a turnover of US$27.16 billion, up 13.8% (equivalent to an increase of US$3.3 billion) compared to the first six months of 2019.

South Korea continued to be the largest supplier of computers, electronic products and components with an import value of US$7.88 billion, down 8.6% over the same period last year.

Followed by markets: China with US$ 6.65 billion, up 14.2%; Taiwan with US$3.19 billion, a sharp increase of 31.7% and surpassing the US (with US$2.28 billion, up 3.6%) to become the third supplier of this product group to Vietnam.

Machinery, equipment, tools and parts thereof ranked second with a value of US$16.82 billion, down 4.5% compared to the same period last year. In which, FDI enterprises imported US$8.53 billion, down 9.3% and domestic enterprises imported US$8.29 billion, up slightly by 1.1%.

China continued to be the largest import market for machinery, equipment, tools and parts thereof with a value of nearly US$7 billion, up 3.2%.

Other major markets were South Korea with US$2.94 billion, down 8.6% and Japan with US$2.18 billion, down 4.7%.

The group of raw materials and accessories for the textile and footwear industry (cotton of all kinds; fabrics of all kinds; fiber and raw materials for textile, garment and leather footwear) reached US$10.26 billion, a sharp decrease of 15.9% (equivalent to a decrease of US$1.94 billion) over the same period last year.

China remained the largest market supplying raw materials and accessories for the textile, garment and footwear industry for Vietnam with a value of US$4.93 billion, down 13%, equivalent to US$733 million over the same period last year and accounting for 48% of the country’s total import value of this group.

US$ 35 billion of imported Chinese goods

In terms of market, China continues to be Vietnam’s largest importer with a total turnover of US$34.92 billion, down 1.9% compared to the same period in 2019 but still accounting for 29.8% of the country’s total import turnover.

Notably, because the import speed in the Chinese market was lower than that of many major markets and the whole country, the proportion of turnover from this country (of the country’s total import turnover) increased from 29.5% of the first six months of last year to 29.8% in the first half of this year.

The dominance of the Chinese market is evident in the leading position in almost all major import groups of Vietnam.

In addition to the three largest commodity groups mentioned above, by the end of June, there were three other commodity groups reaching a turnover of US$1 billion or more.

They were phones and components with more than US$ 3 billion; plastic products with US$ 1.45 billion and iron and steel with US$1.4 billion.

Apart from China, the other two largest import markets in the Top 3 also came from Asia, namely South Korea with US$20.79 billion, down 7.9% compared to the same period last year but still accounting for 17.7% of the country’s total import turnover.

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The remaining market was Japan with US$9.43 billion, up 6.9% over the same period last year and accounting for 8% of the country's total import turnover.