US$7.6 billion spent on petrol imports in 2018

Vietnam recorded 11.43 million tons of petrol imports in 2018, a year on year drop of 11.4% (Photo: Vietnam Economic News)

As a result, despite a surge in value by 8.1% on-year, the volume of petrol imports plunged by 11.4% on-year.

Last December, petrol imports reached 699,000 tons with a value of US$384 million, seeing a 7% drop in volume and 25.3% in value against the previous month.

Malaysia was Vietnam’s main supplier of petrol in 2018 as the country imported a total of 3.28 million tons with a value of US$2.05 billion, up 22.4%. Petrol imports from Malaysia accounted for 28.7% of the country’s total petrol imports.

This was followed by the Republic of Korea (2.42 million tons, down 21.4%) and Singapore (2.4 million tons, down 44.2%).

2018 was the year characterised by a noticeable expansion of supply. Notably, petrol imports from Russia, the nation’s 6th largest petrol supplier, skyrocketed.

Vietnam purchased 128,000 tons of petrol from Russia, valued at US$110,000 in total. These figures leaped by 255% and 402% on year, respectively.

Hong Kong (China) emerged as a new petrol supplier for the country with the provision of 102 tons in 2018, which were worth US$61,000.