Preliminary assessment of Vietnam international merchandise trade performance in the first half of May, 2020

Vietnam‘s trade-in-goods from January to the first half of May of 2020 totaled US dollars 176.61 billion in value terms. It posted a decrease of 1.3% (equivalent to USD 2.25 billion) from the same period of previous year. In which, the total merchandise exports value was up 0.1% to nearly US dollars 89.02 billion and the total merchandise imports value was down 2.6%, to US dollars 87.59 billion.

In the view of FDI traders, the value of exportation and importation in the first half of May reached USD 9.86 billion, down by 6.9% as compared to the second half of April 2020. Therefore, from January to May 15th of 2020, the total value of FDI merchandise trade went down by 4% to US dollar 108.53 billion.

Export:

When compared with the second half of April-2020, export of first half of May decreased by 11.1%, mostly as a result of the downturn registered in telephone, mobile phone and part thereof (down by 16.9% - USD 207 million); machine, tools and equipments (down by 14.5% - USD 128 millions); irons and steels (down by 60.9% - USD 114 million); computer electrical products and part thereofs (down by 7% - USD 111 million)…

Chart 1: Top 10 main exported commodities of Vietnam from Jan. to May 15th 2020 as compared to the same period of 2019.

In the first half of May 2020, import increased by 1.9% when compared with the second half of April, mainly reflecting the upturn in computer, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (up by 7.3% - USD 142 million); irons and steels (up by 33.6% - USD 92 million); fabrics (up by 11.8% - USD 50 million)…

Chart 2: Top 10 main imported commodities of Vietnam from Jan. to May 15th 2020 as compared to the same period of 2019.