Six biggest export markets in focus

VGP – Export value to Viet Nam’s six largest markets include the EU, US, ASEAN, Japan, China and the Republic of Korea (RoK) surged to US$88 billion in 2012, up 19.4% against the previous year.

January 05, 2013 2:53 PM GMT+7

Photo: VGP

The figure accounts for 76.8% of the country’s total export turnover, according to the General Statistics Office.

Out of Viet Nam’s 80 largest export markets, 25 markets provided over US$1 billion in export turnover each, 17 markets with over US$2 billion each and nine others with over US$3 billion each.

The EU is the biggest market of Viet Nam with the export volume increasing constantly from US$4.2 billion in 2005 to US$20.3 billion in 2012.

The market, expanded 22.5% in 2012, makes up 17.7% of the total export turnover. Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain and Belgium are the biggest importers of Viet Nam in the region.

The outcome is encouraging as the EU is facing debt crisis, economic recession, high unemployment rate and austerity.

Noticeably, the country has maintained trade surplus from exporting to the EU, from US$2.9 billion in 2005 to US.5 billion in 2012.

However, export volumes to traditional markets like Estonia, Bulgaria and Hungary remained modest.

The US was the second biggest export market of Viet Nam especially after the two sides inked the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA). Export revenue went up from US$170 million in 1995 to US$1 billion in 2001 and US$19.6 billion in 2012.

Viet Nam chiefly shipped garments, furniture and aquaculture to the US and acquired big trade surplus from US$5.06 billion in 2005 to US$14.9 billion in 2012.

ASEAN market ranked third with export volume jumping to US$17.3 billion in 2012 from US$5.74 billion in 2005.

Within the bloc, six countries, including Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines, imported over US$1 billion each from Viet Nam.

Viet Nam suffered from trade deficit while trading with ASEAN. The trade gap increased from US$1.83 billion in 2000 to US$3.7 billion in 2012.

Japan is another major importer of Vietnamese products. The export revenue stood at US$2.58 billion in 2000 and touched US$13.1 billion in 2012.

Generally, Viet Nam gained a trade surplus of US$274 million in 2000 and US$1.4 billion in 2012.

Regarding trade linkages with China, Viet Nam shifted from trade surplus in 2000 to trade deficit since 2005. The trade gap widened to US$16.7 billion in 2012.

The RoK market helped Viet Nam gain US$5.5 billion in export revenue in 2012, a big surge of 16.6% against last year. The market occupied 4.8% of Viet Nam’s export revenue.

Viet Nam mainly shipped garments, crude oil, aquaculture product, transport vehicles and spare parts to the RoK.

Viet Nam ran large trade deficit with the RoK from US$1.4 billion in 2000 to US$10.1 billion in 2012./.

By Kim Anh