Preliminary assessment of Vietnam international merchandise trade performance in the first 4 months of 2023

2. In the first 4 months of 2023, Vietnam‘s trade-in-goods totaled US dollars 206.76 billion in value terms, 15.3% downwards as compared with last year. In which, total merchandise exports value shrunk 13%, to US dollars 107.16 billion and the total merchandise imports value decreased 17.7% to US dollars 99.6 billion. Accordingly, Vietnam’s trade balance of this period was in the surplus of US dollars 7.56 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 36.27 billion in total for April of 2023, down by 8.3% on month-on-month basis. FDI’s export value of USD 20.04 billion and FDI’s import value of USD 16.24 billion led to a trade surplus of USD 3.8 billion.

For Jan-April period, trade-in-goods by FDI traders totaled US dollars 144.02 billion, down by 15.1% on year-on-year basis. Total value of FDI exportation was USD 79.1 billion, decreased by 12.4%. On import side, the total value of those companies was USD 64.92 billion, down by 18.3%. As a result, FDI’s trade balance was in surplus of USD 14.19 billion.

Main Exports and Imports

4. The March of 2023 to April of 2023 reduction in total merchandise exports was due to downwards of following products: computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (down by USD 921 million); telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (down by USD 365 million); machine, equipment, tools and instruments (down by USD 228 million).

On a year-on-year basis, exports decreased USD 16.08 billion, to USD 107.16 billion. The main products, which contributed to the reduction, were: telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (down by USD 3.81 billion); textiles and garments (down by USD 2.15 billion); wood and wooden products (down by USD 1.72 billion); computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (down by USD 1.66 billion); foot-wears (down by USD 1.14 billion).

5. Trade statistics of Vietnam Customs shows that 4 biggest commodity groups in the first 4 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 17.27 billion in export value and was down by 18.1% on year-on-year basis. The biggest trading partners of Vietnam importing this commodity were the China (down by 14.9% on year-on-year basis, to USD 4.03 billion); the United States (down by 28.1% on year-on-year basis, to USD 3.13 billion); EU (27) (up by 10.9% on year-on-year basis, to USD 2.59 billion); Republic of Korea (down by 46.2% on year-on-year basis, to USD 1.08 billion).

Computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof reached USD 16.03 billion in export value; went down 9.4% on year-on-year basis. The biggest trading partners of Vietnam importing this commodity were the United States (up by 5.3% on year-on-year basis, to USD 4.73 billion); China (down by 14.9% on year-on-year basis, to USD 3.23 billion); EU (27) (down by 30% on year-on-year basis, to USD 1.77 billion); Republic of Korea (up by 20% on year-on-year basis, to USD 1.62 billion).

Machine, equipments, tools and instruments reached USD 13.2 billion in export value; went down by 4.8% on year-on-year basis. The biggest trading partners of Vietnam importing this commodity were the United States (down by 13.1% on year-on-year basis, to USD 5.33 billion); EU (27) (up by 6.4% on year-on-year basis, to USD 1.91 billion); China (down by 1.8% on year-on-year basis, to USD 940 million); Japan (down by 0.9% on year-on-year basis, to USD 890 million).

Textiles and garments reached USD 9.72 billion in export value; went down by 18.1% on year-on-year basis. The biggest trading partners of Vietnam importing this commodity were the United States (down by 30.2% on year-on-year basis, to USD 4.17 billion); EU (27) (down by 10.6% on year-on-year basis, to USD 1.14 billion); Japan (up by 8% on year-on-year basis, to USD 1.13 billion); Republic of Korea (down by 1.5% on year-on-year basis, to USD 990 million).

6. March of 2023 to April of 2023 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 724 million); machine, equipments, tools and instruments (down by USD 337 million); plastics (down by USD 202 million); iron and steels (down by USD 176 million); chemicals (down by USD 142 million).

On a year-on-year basis, the reduction in imports to USD 99.6 billion was mainly contributed by the downturns of the following products: telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (down by USD 4.89 billion); computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (down by USD 4.12 billion); machine, equipments, tools and instruments (down by USD 2.01 billion); plastics (down by USD 1.47 billion); iron and steels (down by USD 1.03 billion).

7. Trade statistics of Vietnam Customs shows that 4 biggest commodity groups in the first 4 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 25.39 billion in import value; went down by 14% on year-on-year basis. The biggest trading partners of Vietnam, from which this commodity was originated, were Republic of Korea (down by 4.1% on year-on-year basis, to USD 8.27 billion); China (down by 19.6% on year-on-year basis, to USD 6.65 billion); Taiwan (China) (down by 22.5%, to USD 3.22 billion); Japan (down by 8.3% on year-on-year basis, to USD 2.19 billion).

Machine, equipments, tools and instruments reached USD 12.47 billion in import value; went down 13.9% on year-on-year basis. The biggest trading partners of Vietnam, from which this commodity was originated, were China (down by 14.2% on year-on-year basis, to USD 6.35 billion); Republic of Korea (down by 22% on year-on-year basis, to USD 1.81 billion); Japan (down by 5.4% on year-on-year basis, to USD 1.33 billion).

Textile, leather and foot-wears materials and auxiliaries group reached USD 7.54 billion in import value; was down by 20.2% on year-on-year basis. The biggest trading partner of Vietnam, from which this commodity was originated, was China (down by 18.2% on year-on-year basis, to USD 3.99 billion); Republic of Korea (down by 16.8% on year-on-year basis, to USD 695 million); Taiwan (China) (down by 29.2%, to USD 655 million); United States (down by 25.4%, to USD 411 million).

Telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof reached USD 2.52 billion in import value; was down by 66% on year-on-year basis. The biggest trading partner of Vietnam, from which this commodity was originated, was China (down by 32.3% on year-on-year basis, to USD 2.13 billion).

Trading Partners

8. For Jan-April period, Vietnamese merchandise trade with trading partners in Asia was totaled USD 134.44 billion in value terms, which moved down 15.2% as compared to the same period of 2022. Trade-in-goods of Vietnam with America was followed, which reached USD 41.61 billion and decreased by 18.6%. The values of other continents were Europe: USD 23.23 billion, down by 11.9%; Oceania: USD 5.14 billion, down by 5.7% and Africa: USD 2.34 billion, down by 12.7% in comparison with the same period of 2022.

9. In the first 4 months of 2023, 4 exporting markets of Vietnam with turnover of over USD 7 billion were: The United States of America (reached USD 28.64 billion); China (reached USD 15.5 billion); Republic of Korea (reached USD 7.58 billion) and Japan (reached USD 7.33 billion).

10. On import side, four partners exporting goods to Vietnam with turnover of over 5 billion were as follows: China (reached USD 32.36 billion); Republic of Korea (reached USD 16.05 billion); Japan (reached USD 6.96 billion); Taiwan (reached USD 5.94 billion).