Eight-month trade surpasses US$500 bln mark, trade surplus hits US$20 bln

Seafood is among Vietnam's key export items

GSO statistics show the country earned US$265.09 billion from exports, up15.8%, and spent US$246.02 billion on imports, up 17.7%, resulting in US$19.97 billion in trade surplus from eight months.

Notably, the FDI sector raked in US$191.21 billion from exports, including from crude oil, marking an increase of 13.9% year on year and accounting for 72.1% of the country’s total export value.

As many as 30 items recorded the export turnover of more than US$1 billion each, and six items attained the export turnover of more than US$10 billion each. The key six export items with revenue of more than US$10 billion were electronics, computers, and components; telephones and components; machinery, equipment, and other accessories; textiles and garments; footwear; wood and wooden products.

Among the major export items, processed industrial products topped the list, bringing back US$233.33 billion, or 88% of the total export revenue. They were followed by agricultural and forestry products (US$22.53 billion), seafood products (US$6.31 billion) and fuel and mineral products US$2.92 billion).

Meanwhile, there were 38 items with the import value of more than US$1 billion each, and two items with the import value of more than US$10 billion each.

Vietnam spent US$230.95 billion importing input materials for production, with 46.9% on machinery, equipment, tools, and accessories, and 47% on raw materials, fuel, and other materials.

The United States was the largest export market for Vietnam, with an estimated turnover of US$77.9 billion, while China was the largest import market for Vietnam, with an estimated turnover of US$92.3 billion.

In the first eight months, Vietnam’s trade surplus with the United States was estimated at US$68.1 billion, an increase of 28.6%; with the European Union at US$23.6 billion, up 22%; and with Japan at US$1.7 billion, up 30.5%.

Meanwhile, Vietnam’s trade deficit from China was estimated at US$54.4 billion, an increase of 69.6%; from the Republic of Korea at US$20 billion, up 12.1%, and from ASEAN at US$5.8 billion, up 14.8%.