Vietnam Looks to Become Motorbike Exporter

Vietnam Looks to Become Motorbike Exporter  

Vietnam will become a motorcycle manufacturing and exporting center in the region by 2010, according to the motorbike industry development strategy to 2010 and vision 2020 introduced in Hanoi recently.

The motorbike industry is growing fast while export revenues are increasing.

Motorbike export revenues jumped to US$7.4 million in 2002 to US$40 million in 2004, with Honda Vietnam being on the top with US$30 million.

The Japanese-invested Honda Vietnam, the largest motorbike maker in the country, sent over 60,000 economical motorcycles and a large volume of spare parts to Laos and the Philippines in 2004, followed by the Taiwanese-led SYM with US$3.4 million from exporting 15,000 finished bikes and 18,300 engines.

Several domestic enterprises like T&T Technology and Trade Co., Hoa Lam Co. and Duc Phuong Co. also began exporting its products. Locally invested makers earned US$200,000 from exports last year.

The main export markets for made-in-Vietnam motorbikes currently are Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Vietnam targets to export 500,000 finished motorbikes a year by 2010 and two million units a year from 2010 to 2020, according to the strategy.

According to the Institute for Industry Strategy and Policy, Laos, Cambodia and Africa are potential exporting markets for motorbike manufacturers in Vietnam because they have underdeveloped motorbike industries.

However, exporters normally face barriers when exporting their products. Mr. Do Quang Hien, director of T&T Co. said, “It is not easy to grasp an export opportunity. But sometimes when there is an export opportunity, many problems emerge and opportunities go by.”

“In 2004, T&T Co. won a contract to export 500 motorbikes worth nearly US$100,000 to Pakistan but the company could not send its products because Vietnam and Pakistan hadn’t set up a payment mechanism via a banking system.”

Vietnam now has 52 operational motorbike production companies, including eight foreign-owned firms, with a combined capacity of about three million units a year. However, about 10 have suspended production.

Trade