Recently, the price of US dollar skyrocketed after the market was quiet for a long time. In the unofficial market, a US dollar was priced at VND 16,300. The gold price reached the record high level, VND 13.65 million per tael. Nobody can ensure the future of the gold market due to its unexpected ups and downs. During the recent gold price fever, many people suffered losses as they bought at high prices and sold at lower.
An increase in prices of oil and petrol has given immediate effects on the transportation service. Many transportation companies have increased their fares or charged their customers more to compensate the increase of oil and petrol. Le Minh, director of SOTRANS, said that costs for a fleet of over ten long vehicles had increased by at least 10 per cent. Now, transportation costs of from Hanoi to Haiphong increased to VND 1.8 million for a 20-foot container vehicle and VND 3.6 million for a 40-feet vehicle.
Minister of Finance Nguyen Sinh Hung said that the increase of prices of petrol and oil would certainly have effects and the Government was considering careful measures to minimise negative effects. The increase of petrol and oil prices was unavoidable as the world prices continued to increase sharply and Vietnam had cut import tax to zero and pressure was on the shoulder of the budget.
The increase in prices of input materials has added the burden on the shoulder of enterprises. As petrol and oil prices have increased sharply, forcing many enterprises to think about an increase in prices of their products. The Van Dien Phosphate Fertiliser Company said that it was planning to increase prices of its products by between three and five per cent due to the fact that its customers mainly concentrate in the Central Highlands and the South, while its material supply areas in Lao Cai and Quang Ninh provinces, far from Hanoi, so transportation fees have resulted in an increase in prices of products. All production industries have been affected, as transportation fees sometimes account for 10 per cent of prices of products. The plastic industry, for example, is facing a lot of difficulties as the market will not accept products at higher prices but if the industry does not increase prices of products, it will certainly suffer losses. Steel manufacturers have yet to increase prices but retailers have asked for VND 50,000 more for a tonne, as they said, to share the burden of transportation fees.
After each increase of prices of input materials, the Ministry of Finance asks enterprises to renew their technology and equipment to save costs, thus reducing prices of their products. However, enterprises say that they have done their best. To renew technology and equipment, they have to increase their investment. With a high increase of capital price, it is a difficult problem for enterprises to increase their investment. At the Tan Mai Paper Company, old production lines consume three times as much as new ones. As a result, production costs of the old production lines are between 15 and 20 per cent higher than new ones. The company wants to renew its production lines but it will cost them tens of millions of US dollars.
Price increases have affected not only enterprises. Manufacturers and traders of many other consumer goods have taken the advantage to increase their prices. Apart from electronic goods, whose prices have fallen under pressure of import tax cut, prices of other consumer goods are escalating. Supermarkets pledged not to increase prices due to a rise in petrol and oil price increase, yet have hinted that they may consider increasing prices as their stock is less full. Therefore, in the future, enterprises will have to adjust themselves to adapt high prices with little hope for a future price reduction.
Le Minh
Vietnamese
