31 Aug 2012 Intellasia Finance Vietnam - Hong Kong Business ...

FINANCE
Vietnam finance & business 31 August 2012
Two items to join
export turnover club
of billion US dollars
Exporters face tough
China competition for
US dollars
31/AUG/2012 INTELLASIA | THOI BAO NGAN HANG PAGE 2
Over the past eight months, two items reached an export turnover of approximately $1
billion, promising to be new members in the group of export commodities with export
turnover of over $1 billion in the next several months.
In particular, since early this year till the middle of August 2012, manioc and its products
fetched an export turnover of over $926 million, nearly equalling to the export
turnover of the whole year 2011 ($960 million).
In addition, exports of camera, cine-camera and components in Jan-August earned
over $802 million, higher than the export turnover of the whole year 2011 ($702 million).
Reportedly, according to the figures from the general Department of Customs, in 2011,
as many as 19 export commodities of Vietnam reached a turnover of from $1 billion
onwards (excluding crude oil and gasoline), of which, apparel products topped the list
with an export turnover of $14.043 billion.
31/AUG/2012 INTELLASIA | SAIGON TIMES DAILY
Vietnam's exports are facing intense competition from Chinese goods in the US market,
demanding that local exporters make a real breakthrough in product quality, prices
and delivery time.
Products exported to the US must satisfy these three requirements, stated Nguyen Duy
Khien, head of the American Market Department under the Ministry of Industry and
Trade.
Speaking at the "US market - Opportunities for Vietnamese businesses" workshop held
in Hanoi on Tuesday, Khien said the prices of Vietnamese exports are 2 percent higher
than Chinese goods in the US market with one of the reasons for that - high transport
costs. To reduce costs, furniture makers need to produce separable or folding products.
"The US sets many strict standards. Some items from Vietnam are still well consumed
in this market because our products carry US labels.
"Most of the US consumers trust the labels on products rather than the country of origin.
This indicates that the confidence of the US consumers in Vietnamese goods is still
limited," said Khien at the workshop.
According to experts, apart from traditional items like textile-garment and leatherfootwear,
machinery and electronic parts are potential products that can penetrate the
US market in the future.
Therefore, local producers have to improve their products and seize any chance to
bring their goods stateside.
Speaking to the Daily on the sidelines of the workshop, Khien said the US is a huge
market that imports some $2.3 trillion worth of products each year, twice as much as
Germany and China.
Meanwhile, Vietnam mainly exports textile-garment, leather-footwear, furniture, electronic
products and seafood, which make up a very small portion of the import demand
of the US market.
At present, the majority of Vietnamese businesses are exporting to the US via a third
party. "We need businesses that can play the role of a locomotive to directly fulfill the
orders of the US," Khien stated.
He informed that US companies only provide the product designs, so Vietnamese
firms must find material supply themselves.
"Vietnamese businesses face problems with this method, as they are accustomed to receiving
materials from partners," said Khien.
Production costs depend on material prices, which are volatile, causing great difficulties
to producers. Therefore, Khien suggested local enterprises should join hands to
supply materials to each other.
In 2011, the two-way Vietnam-US trade turnover totalled over $21 billion, in which Vietnam
exported $17 billion worth of products.
http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/Home/business/trade/25325/
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