Vietnam-Russia trade: increase in exports, decrease in imports

	FTA helps fuel Vietnam-Russia trade growth
	Efforts made to tap Vietnam-Russia trade potential
	Vietnam-Russia trade on the rise

Exports: Phones dominate the market

According to information updated by the General Department of Customs, by the end of April, the total trade turnover between Vietnam and the Russian Federation reached more than US$ 1.5 billion. Vietnam's exports were US$ 931 million and imports were US$ 592 million. Thus, our country saw a trade surplus of over US$ 300 million.

In the past four months, Vietnam’s export turnover to the Russian Federation grew at a rate of over 23.3%, equivalent to US$ 180 million over the same period in 2018.

Vietnam’s largest export group is phones and components with a turnover of US$ 441 million, accounting for 47.4% of the country’s total export turnover to this market, up by 16.3% compared to the same period 2018.

Other major export groups have impressive growth in the largest country in the world, such as: Computers, electronic products and components; textiles and garments ... In which, computers, electronic products and components reached US$ 102.6 million, up by 86.5%; textiles and garments reached US$ 65 million, up by 86%.

In the five years (2014-2018), Vietnam’s export turnover to the Russian Federation rose from more than US$ 1.7 billion to nearly US$ 2.45 billion, an increase of about 42%. The phones and components group always plays as a key role and a decisive factor in the change in export growth to this market.

In 2015, phones comprised 39% of more than US$ 1.7 billion of the total export turnover. By 2018, the contribution of this group increased to 45%. This is Vietnam’s first export group hitting US$ 1 billion to the Russian Federation market (reaching US$ 1.103 billion last year). Turnover in 2018 grew by nearly 64% compared to five years ago, higher than the average export growth rate to the Russian Federation during this period.

In addition to phones and components, the group of computer products, electronic products and components also dominate the Russian Federation market. In the last 5 years, the turnover of this commodity has increased from 124.3 million USD in 2014 to 228 million USD last year, up to 83%.

The contribution of the above two technology groups to export turnover to the Russian Federation is undeniable. However, the dependence on the turnover of a few groups also shows the risk of instability in maintaining a sustainable growth rate for our country's export activities when the two groups change.

Meanwhile, Vietnam has other key export groups such as textiles and garments, footwear, fishery and coffee have not seen growth in this market

In the past five years, the above groups had an insignificant growth rate, fishery even decreased. Specifically, textiles and garments only rose by US$ 43 million (from US$ 136 million to US$ 179 million); footwear rose by US$ 35 million (from US$ 87.2 million to US$ 122.3 million); while fishery declined from US$ 104.3 million in 2014 to US$ 87.2 million last year .

Import and export turnover and trade balance between the two countries in the recent five years (2014-2018), the unit of "US$ million" Chart: T.Binh

Imports: Coal and wheat increase sharply

Vietnam's import turnover from Russia in the first months of the year saw a decline.

The value of the recent four months declined by US$ 88 million, equivalent to a year-on-year decline of 13%.

Two groups causing the decline were the group of machinery, equipment, tools, spare parts and the group of iron and steel. In particular, machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts only reached US$ 8.6 million, down sharply from US$ 74 million of the same period last year. Iron and steel only reached US$ 84.5 million, down 21.5%.

Contrary to the decline in overall import turnover from Russia, coal imported from this country has seen sudden growth.

By the end of April, the whole country imported nearly 2.3 million tons of coal, worth nearly US$ 208 million, four times higher in volume and 3.2 times higher in turnover than the same period last year.

Although during the early months of 2019 the import growth from the Russian Federation tended to decline, looking back over the past five years, Russia showed strong export growth to Vietnam.

The turnover of the five largest export groups to the Russian Federation, the unit of “US$ million”. Chart: Binh

Vietnam's import turnover from the Russian Federation rose from US$ 826.8 million in 2014 to US$ 2.131 billion last year, up nearly 158%, while Vietnam's export turnover in this period only rose by 42%. This means that Vietnam’s import growth from the Russian Federation is nearly three times higher than Vietnam’s export growth rate to the country.

In the past five years, a series of export products from Russia have found a foothold in the Vietnam market such as wheat, coal, iron and steel. In which, wheat grew from nearly 16,400 tons with a turnover of more than US$ 5 million to over 2.9 million tons with a turnover of US$ 656 million last year, up 178 times in volume and over 131 times in turnover after five years.

Coal also increased from 249,000 tons with a turnover of more than US$ 25 million to nearly 2.85 million tons with a turnover of US$ 291.5 million last year, an increase of 11 times in volume and turnover. Iron and steel rose from 27,500 tons with a turnover of more than US$ 14.4 million to nearly 549,500 tons with a turnover of more than US$ 316.3 million, up nearly 20 times in volume and nearly 22 times in turnover.

Association helps promote Vietnam-Russia trade ties Business and investment promotion activities arranged by the Vietnamese Business Association in Russia (VBAR) have remarkably contributed ...

As a result, Vietnam's import turnover from the Russian Federation has had sharp and stable growth. Therefore, the trade balance between the two countries is being narrowed from a trade surplus (to Vietnam) of nearly US$ 900 million in 2014 to US$ 315 million in 2018.