Vietnam FDI sector posts $12.57 bln trade surplus in Q1

Foreign-invested enterprises in Vietnam recorded a trade surplus of $12.57 billion in the first quarter of 2024, with crude oil activities factored into account, the General Statistics Office reported Friday.

In Q1/2024, Vietnam posted an export revenue of $93.06 billion, up 17% year-on-year, and an import expenditure of $84.98 billion, up 13.9%, resulting in a trade surplus of $8.08 billion. The trade surplus is higher than $4.49 billion in Q1/2023.

The domestic sector made a trade deficit of $4.49 billion in the period.

Vietnam’s key export sectors in Q1 were electronics, computers and components with $15.69 billion, up 30.3% year-on-year; phones and components with $14.71 billion, up 9.7%; machine and equipment with $10.87 billion, up 10.2%; and apparel-textile with $7.76 billion, up 7.9%.

Products from the manufacturing-processing industry accounted for $82.02 billion of the country's export total, or 88.1%; followed by farm produce and forestry goods at $8 billion (8.6%); fisheries at $1.86 billion (2%); and fuel and natural resources at $1.18 billion (1.3%).

Regarding import, the highest expenditures belonged to sectors of electronics, computers and components with $23.94 billion, up 23.6% year-on-year; machine and equipment with $10.31 billion, up 12.1%; fabric with $3.06 billion, up 2.7%; and steel-iron with $2.99 billion, up 31.9%.

Materials for production accounted for $79.9 billion, or 94% of total imports. The remaining 6%, or $5.08 billion, was spent on consumer goods.

In Q1, China and the U.S. were the biggest trade partners of Vietnam, with total trade values of $42.1 billion and $29.7 billion, respectively. Other major trade partners were the ASEAN with $20 billion, South Korea with $19.4 billion, the EU with $16 billion, and Japan with $11.3 billion.

For the northern neighbor China, Vietnam spent $29.4 billion on importing goods and earned $12.7 billion in exporting goods, up 24.4% and 5.2%, respectively.

Regarding the U.S., Vietnam reaped $26.2 billion on exported goods and recorded an import spending of $3.5 billion, up 26% and 14.8% year-on-year.