Highlights

1. Vietnam Customs’ trade data recorded a slight fall of 3.8% in Vietnam’s international trade-in-good in April of  2012 in comparison with the performance of previous month, which totalled US dollars 17.92 billion in value terms. In which, the total merchandise export value came at US dollars 8,962  billion, a drop of 5.5% as compared to March’s result. On the import side, the total value was US dollars 8,959 billion, down gently by 1.9% as compared to the performance of March, 2012. As a result, Vietnam’s trade balance was in surplus in April 2012, posting US dollars 3 million.

2. Vietnam Customs’ trade data  shows a double-digit  increase of 12.3% in Vietnam’s international trade-in-good in the first four months of 2012 as compared to the same period of last year, which were summed up to US dollars 67.44 billion. In which, the merchandise export totalled US dollars 33.76 billion, up impressively by 22.6% as compared with the corresponding period of one year earlier. There was a light increase in the total merchandise import of 3.6% as compared to the same period of 2011, which reached US dollars 33.68 billion in value terms. Consequently, Vietnam’s trade balance was in surplus of US dollars 78 million reported for the first 4 months of 2012.

 3. According to trade data for exports and imports for the first four months of 2012 released by Vietnam Customs, the total value of exportation and importation by foreign direct invested (FDI) traders was US dollars 35.66 billion, with 31.3% above the result of the same period last year. Total value of FDI exportation came at US dollars 18.37 billion, advanced robustly by 42.1 %. By importation, the total value of those traders was US dollars 17.29 billion, up considerably by 21.6%.

                                                                                                    Source: Vietnam Customs

Exports                        

6.  The following Table disseminated by Vietnam Customs illustrates Top 10 major exported commodities of Vietnam in April 2012. The leading exports of Vietnam to the world were inclusive of: textiles and garments (US dollars 1.031 billion). Followed by telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (US dollars 665 million); crude oil (USD dollars 649 million); foot-wears (US dollars 583 million); computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (US dollars 535 million); …

7. The following chart shows that the United States is the biggest importer of Vietnamese products with the total value of US dollars 5.8 billion in the first four months of 2012; Japan is the second one; and then China, Republic of Korea, Germany, Malaysia,…

Imports

8. According to Table 3 which shows the top 10 major imported commodities in April 2012, it is evident that the leading imports of Vietnam from rest of the world were as follows:  Machine, equipment, tools and instrument (US dollars 1,313 million); textile, leather and foot-wears materials and auxiliaries group (US dollars 1,066 million); petroleum products  (US dollars 923 million); computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (US dollars 824 million); fabrics (US dollars 605 million); iron and steel (US dollars 531 million); …

9. China was the biggest partner exporting goods to Vietnam with the value of  US dollars 7.9 billion in the first 4 months of 2012, followed by: Republic of Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand …