Vietnam's export turnover in July has showed significant jump with an estimated figure of $8.4 billion, rising 38.5 percent from last July, Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) reported.

Totally, in the first seven months of the year, the country's export turnover was estimated at $51.46 billion, up 33.5 percent over the same period last year while foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs), excluding crude oil, claimed to earn $23.7 billion from exports, up 32.8$ year-on-year.

13 export commodities join club of $1b

Thirteen export items fetched more than $1 billion in total (increasing two more items from June) including seafood, coffee, rice, rubber, crude oil, oil and gas, wooden products, garment and textiles, footwear, precious gemstones and metals, computers, electronics and components, mechanics, equipments, means of transport and spare parts.

In terms of group of items, exports from the agro-forestry and seafood sector showed an increase of 38.8 percent to reach more than $11.26 billion, making up 21.9 percent of the country's total export turnover, of which, some commodities saw high export growth such as coffee (up 83.7 percent), pepper (+63.9 percent), cassava and its products (+81.5 percent) and rubber (+77.2 percent).

The group of fuel and mineral reached $6.34 billion, rising 37.6 percent and accounted for 12.3 percent of the country's total export, of which, oil and gas was up 68.8 percent, ore and minerals (up 63.7 percent), crude oil (up 39.1 percent) and coal (up 8.1 percent).

The export turnover of processed industries was estimated at $25.76 billion, up 24.3 percent and accounting for 50 percent. For the whole year, this group is expected to contribute some $45 billion to the country's export turnover.

Some items also showed high export quantity such as ores and other minerals (+40.3 percent), cassava and its products (+38.8 percent), oil and gas (+21.3 percent), iron and steel (+20.3 percent), plastic materials (+20.1 percent), coffee (+18 percent), and rice (+9 percent). Meanwhile, some other export commodities seeing a downward trend included cashew nut (-16.9 percent), tea (-4.8 percent), coal (-12.8 percent) and crude oil (-3.9 percent).

The advantages in terms of price also helped many export items increase strongly such as cashew (up 44.7 percent), coffee (55.6 percent), tea (4.3 percent), pepper (68.5 percent), rice (1.4 percent), cassava and its products (30.8 percent), rubber (59 percent), coal (24 percent), crude oil (44.7 percent), oil and gas (39.2 percent), ores and other minerals (16.7 percent), iron and steel (19.9 percent) and plastic material (up 13.5 percent).

In general, Vietnam has achieved a high export growth in foreign markets like Asean (up 19 percent and accounting for 14.3 percent), Japan (23.1 percent and counting for 9.9 percent), China (57.7 percent and accounting for 10.5 percent), the US (20.1 percent and accounting for 17.9 percent) and the EU market (up 47.1 percent and accounting for 17.1 percent).

Trade gap goes down

As estimated, the country's import value in July was $8.6 billion, down 0.2 percent from June but up 21.2 percent over last June.

Totally in Jan-Jul, the country's import spending was estimated at $58.1 billion, up 26.2 percent year-on-year, of which, the import spending of 100 percent domestic-invested firms was $32.69 billion, up 23.8 percent y-o-y and accounting for 56.3 percent while the figure of foreign-invested enterprises was $25.42 billion, up 29.5 percent and accounting for 43.7 percent of the country's total import value.

The surging import spending was also attributed to the price factor, especially input materials for production and consumer goods such as cotton (up 97.7 percent), wheat (70.5 percent), fertiliser (63.9 percent), oil and gas (58.5 percent), rubber (54.2 percent) and fibre (up 51.8 percent).

Even, the import spending increased in the group of restricted items such as less than 9-seat CBU cars (up 63.8 percent) and consumer goods (excluding below 9-seat car) up 6.4 percent.

Asia was still Vietnam's biggest import market with a rise of 28.7 percent in Jan-July and accounting for 79.3 percent of the country's total import value, of which China (up 21.5 percent and accounting for 23.6 percent), Asean (up 33 percent and accounting for 20.4 percent), Korea (up 37.8 percent and accounting for 12.4 percent), Japan (up 14.4 percent and accounting for 9.6 percent) and import from EU market was up 20.6 percent and accounted for 7.2 percent of the country's total import value.

Thus, the ratio of trade gap on export in Jan-July was only 12.9 percent, much lower than 19.4 percent of the same period last year and lower than the National Assembly-approved target for the whole year of 18 percent.