Vietnam recorded a total industrial production value of nearly VND242,400 billion (US$15.15 billion) in the first half of 2006, an on-year increase of over 16 per cent, according to the Report of the Ministry of Industry. The private sector enjoyed the highest growth of 20.8 per cent, followed by foreign-invested sector with 18.5 per cent and the central State-owned sector with 12.6 per cent. However, the local State-owned sector only made a 1.6 per cent increase.
The production value of many key industrial products increased significantly, with the notable increases of electricity at 12.5 per cent, clean coal at nearly 24 per cent, steel and steel products at over 20 per cent, silk and material at 20.5 per cent and garments 25.7 per cent. However, the manufacturing of several products like tools, transformers, fans, TV sets, sugar and motorbikes fell due to the shrinkage of the domestic market and the failure to penetrate export markets. As to automobile products, manufacturers are limiting outputs to study the market movement of imported second-hand cars. The car sales dropped as consumers are waiting in a hope of buying good imported automobiles and domestic autos at lower prices.
Industrial product import-export turnover grew stably
Export: The total export revenue was US$14.3 billion, or 76.5 per cent of the country’s total export turnover. Major exports gained growth rates higher than the national average. For example, electric cable and wire export value was up 36.1 per cent, coal 34.9 per cent, textiles and apparels 32.7 per cent, plastic products, 28.5 per cent, wood products 25.8 per cent, crude oil 23.5 per cent, footwear 20.3 per cent and electronic-computer hardware 18.2 per cent.
Several enterprises, which maintained big export revenues, enjoyed high growth rates. For example, the Vietnam Coal and Minerals Corp. recorded US$361.6 million, up 36.8 per cent on year, PetroVietnam (exclusive of joint venture’s incomes) earned US$1.63 billion, up 22.4 per cent and Vietnam Garment and Textile Group attained US$478.5 million, up 10.5 per cent. Other smaller enterprises achieved very high growths in the six months. Vietnam Steel Corp. made a 83.3 per cent export turnover increase, followed by Vinachem up 22.7 per cent and ceramic-glass group up 17.4 per cent. However, some enterprises suffered decreases, as they cannot expand the export market, including Vietnam Electronics and Informatics Corp. and leather-footwear group.
Import
In a downsizing market, the sharp fall in car sales in the first months of 2006 led to a deep decline in the import of this commodity. In the first half, Vietnam imported only 6,750 finished autos, down 32.7 per cent on year and spent US$190 million to import car components, down 47.9 per cent. The import of other key commodities like petroleum and steel billet was reported down 7.1 per cent and 14.4 per cent to 5.67 million tonnes and 916,000 tonnes because of high price and fluctuant price movement.
Other commodities of light industries and supporting industries had a high import growth. Particularly, in the first half, Vietnam disbursed US$338 million on fertilisers, up 13.7 per cent, US$238 million on papers, up 39.8 per cent, US$857 million on plastic materials, up 27.2 per cent, US$246 million on fibres, up 39.7 per cent, US$109 million on cotton, up 19 per cent, US$2.95 billion on machinery, equipment and tool, up 16 per cent and US$1.5 billion on clothing, up 34.6 per cent.
According to highly reliable forecasts, in spite of increasing import value, there will not be sudden changes in trade deficit in the coming months.
Huong Ly
Vietnamese
