Cars imported from Thailand, Indonesia flood Việt Nam market

Cars imported from Thailand parking at a port in Viet Nam. — Photo courtesy of baogiaothong.vn

HÀ NỘI — In the first seven months of 2023, Việt Nam imported nearly 80,000 CBU cars of all kinds, with a total turnover of US$1.87 billion, a sharp increase of 2.4 per cent in quantity and 0.1 per cent in value compared to the same period last year.

During the period, Việt Nam purchased 36,087 vehicles from Thailand, an increase of 45.2 per cent in quantity with an import turnover of $762.2 million. In July alone, cars imported from Thailand reached 3,714 units, or equivalent to a turnover of $84 million.

In the first seven months and in July alone, Thailand secured the first position in auto exports to Việt Nam.

Thus, the average value of vehicles imported from Thailand to Việt Nam with a declared price at the port in July was $21,000/car or equivalent to VNĐ493million/unit. Imported vehicles from Thailand are now favoured by Vietnamese consumers including Toyota Corolla Cross, Camry, Corolla Altis, Fortuner, Ford Everest, Honda HR-V, Mazda CX-30 and CX-3, Forester Subaru and so on.

Meanwhile, the volume of cars imported from Indonesia ranked second with 3,520 units, reaching a turnover of $47.85 million in July. In the January-July period, Indonesia exported 29,498 vehicles to Việt Nam with an export turnover of $399.63 million.

Imported cars from Indonesia are estimated at $13,500/car or equivalent to VNĐ318 million/car. Ranking in third place is China with 591 vehicles, valued at $26 million in July and 6,420 units in the seven months with a turnover of $250 million.

Accordingly, the average value of vehicles imported from China to Việt Nam with a declared price at the port in July was $39,000/car or equivalent to VNĐ930million/unit. Most imported vehicles are trucks and specialised vehicles for the construction industry.

As a result, in the past seven months 2023, more than 72,000 vehicles were imported to the country from Thailand, Indonesia and China accounting for 90.2 per cent of the country’s total Completely Built Units (CBU) imports.

In 2022, the Vietnamese auto market imported a record 173,467 cars of all kinds, with total turnover exceeding $3.84 billion. Compared to the same period in 2021, imported cars into Việt Nam increased by 8.5 per cent in quantity and 5.1 per cent higher in turnover value.

Also, in 2022, Indonesia and Thailand were the two largest import markets. In particular, Indonesia surpassed Thailand in terms of imported cars, but Thailand still ranks No 1 in terms of turnover.

In 2022, Việt Nam imported 72,671 units with a turnover of more than $1 billion from Indonesia and 72,032 vehicles from Thailand valued at $1.43 billion. They were followed by China with 17,340 vehicles with a turnover of $714.5 million.