EXPORT GROWTH SLOWS DOWN

Mineral exports plummeted

Export turnover reached US$59.13 billion, up 5.4 percent compared to the target plan of 10 percent, mainly because of the export decline in the mineral fuels groups. Export turnover decreased in some items such as: textile plummeted by US$143 million, telephones and accessories decreased nearly US$128 million, and vehicles and parts decreased by US$90 million.
 
Regarding export price, compared to the same period last year, the average prices of most commodities were deducted except two items which are cashew (up 6.9 percent) and rice (up 1.6 percent), the remaining items have average export price fell relatively large due to the influence the world price decreases including coffee decreased by 18.2 percent, cassava 26.1 percent, coal 25.8 percent and gasoline 40.8 percent.
 
Regarding exports, sales of agricultural and forest products increased sharply, such as vegetables 43.3 percent; cashew 11.8 percent and rice 10.3 percent.
 
The export value of goods such as agricultural products, products of the processing industry and mineral fuels in the first month of 2016 began to gradually increase over the same period last year, because April is the beginning of the season for some agricultural products, world market demand started to increase for production. Only some items not in harvest have slightly lower export value.
 
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, export turnover of agricultural, forestry and fisheries in the first 5 months of 2016 reached US$12.18 billion, up 4.9 percent compared to the same period in 2015. In the past 5 months, Vietnam has a trade surplus in forestry and fisheries of nearly US$3.4 billion.
 
In FDI business sector, export value of goods in early May reached US$4.24 billion, down 13.8 percent (equivalent to US$677 million) compared to the last 15 days in April. Thus, from the beginning of 2016 to May 15th, export turnover of FDI enterprises reached US$41.45 billion, up 9 percent over the same period in 2015, equivalent to US$3.43 billion and accounted for 70.1 percent of total export turnover of Vietnam.
 
The main export markets did not change much and it is estimated that export to the Asian market increased by 2.8 percent, accounting for 48.2 percent of proportion of total exports. European markets have a higher growth rate than the previous months (up 11.2 percent) and accounted for about 20.6 percent, while the EU 27 increased by 10.4 percent; American markets increased by 13.3 percent. Reduction in the export is seen in the African and Pacific markets.
 
Highlight in textiles, footwear

Many textile enterprises had sufficient export orders until the end of the second quarter, even with a number of businesses, production schedule has been planned by the end of the year and this is a positive signal for the textile sector to achieve export turnover target of 2016. As set out in 4 months of 2016, export of textiles and clothing industry is estimated at US$6.82 billion dollars, up 6.2 percent over the same period.
 
According to the Vietnam Footwear Association (LEFASO), many companies in the industry have a stable export orders up to May and June and are preparing for the new production season. Generally in the first 4 months of 2016, footwear production was estimated at 77.9 million pairs, an increase of 2.4 percent over the same period. Export turnover of footwear types is estimated at US$3.68 billion, an increase of 4.8 percent over the same period.

Source: VCCI