Vietnam’s rice to benefit from Thai price hike

Thailand’s rice export prices are likely to increase this Friday when the Thai government’s program to buy local rice at higher prices officially starts, meaning global importers could switch to buying from Vietnam.

As of October 7, the new exporting price of Thai white rice will be hiked to between US$750 and $800 a ton.

With this new price, local exporters said Vietnam would be an attractive alternative market for international importers who used to buy rice from Thailand since Vietnamese rice was as high as the Thai counterpart in terms of quality.

“Some Thai rice exporters come to Vietnam to seek supply and also consider setting up factories here,” Pham Van Bay, deputy chairman of Vietnam Food Association, informed.
Bay added that Indonesia had emerged as a major rice importing market since it had contracted to buy a total 1.75 tons of rice from Vietnam.

“Moreover, the Philippines will soon have to import rice to make up for the loss due to floods and Vietnam’s rice will be the top choice for this country,” he added.

Experts said Thai’s soaring prices would also help raise domestic paddy price until next June.

Average paddy price in the first three quarters of this year is VND6,114 a kg, according to VFA.

Nguyen Tri Ngoc, head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Department of Cultivation, affirmed that Vietnam still had adequate rice supply for exports, with total production expected to reach 41 million tons this year, up by 1 million tons compared with last year.

Earlier some insiders had voiced concerns that the country’s rice exporting sector would not have enough supply to enjoy profits from the higher export prices due to the bad impacts from natural disasters.

“Since there are 600,000 hectares of paddy in the Mekong Delta for this autumn-winter crop, the 5,000 hectares damaged in the recent floods have inconsiderably affected the total production output,” Ngoc explained.

“Beside the adequate supply to meet domestic demand, we will also have enough 7 tons for export as planned.”

Bay of VFA also emphasized that the most important task of rice businesses in the last quarter was to stabilize the domestic market.

“The increased export price will help hike paddy price, benefiting farmers.

“But if domestic price is too high, consumers will be affected.”

He said those businesses signing up for the price stabilization program had to ensure stockpiles so as to timely intervene when the market fluctuated.

“When domestic rice price rises unexpectedly, the businesses have to sell at 15 percent lower than the market price to tame the soaring prices.”

Experts pan failed border economic zones

With the number of border gate economic zones exceeding the planned number and functioning inefficiently, analysts have called on the government to review their operation and focus investment on those with potential for development.

The government had planned to develop 27 zones by 2015 but there are already 28. Their functioning has, however, fallen far short of expectation.

The government had targeted trade of US$14 billion via the zones last year but the actual figure was a mere $5.44 billion, or just 10 percent of the country’s total trade.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Economic Service Agency, which is in charge of developing the zones, admitted they were not operating efficiently.

But Luu Quang Khanh, head of the agency, said their development also depended on the country on the other side of the border.

While those on the Chinese border had been doing well, the economic zones that had been developing slowly and failed to attract investors were on the borders with Laos and Cambodia, whose economies were not developed and bilateral trade and with whom Vietnam’s trade was low, he said.

Assoc Prof Dr Vo Dai Luoc of the Institute of Social Sciences told Tuoi Tre that the large-scale development of border economic zones worried him.

“I have been to a border economic zone where more than 20,000 hectares of land was almost deserted,” he said.

It was a big mistake to build many border economic zones in localities where there was no necessity for them.

“This would do harm to the economy.

“The government should first stop building new zones and then review the operations of all existing ones.”

Economist Le Dang Doanh said the zones were wasting not only thousands of billions of dong of public money but also taking over hundreds of thousands of hectares of agricultural land.

Khanh said his agency would appraise the economic zones and suggest solutions to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Taiwanese investors consider switch to Vietnam

Many Taiwanese businesses were considering transferring their investment in China to Vietnam, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Ho Chi Minh City (TECOHCMC) informed at a conference on Vietnam-Taiwan trade cooperation yesterday.

TECOHCMC’s director general Jerry S. K. Yang said since labor cost in China recently soared, Vietnam had emerged as a potential alternative for Taiwanese investors.

He said in late September around 100 Taiwanese investors attended a trade promotion conference in Hanoi to seek investment opportunities in the northern region.

“Around 30 out of these businesses said they wanted to invest in the north of Vietnam,” he said.

He added that TECOHCMC also encouraged the investors to enter the northern market since the southern region had attracted most of the investment from Taiwan so far.

“The new [Taiwanese] investors may have to compete with each other in terms of workforce and raw materials should they continue to enter the southern market.”

Shi H. Huang, chairman of the Vietnam Committee of the Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association (CIECA), said he was leading a delegation of 30 Taiwan-based businesses, most of which were investing in China, to Vietnam to carry out market research and seek partners.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Foreign Investment Agency, Taiwan invested a total of US$23.31 trillion to Vietnam between 1988 and last September, ranking second out of 93 countries and territories that have investments in Vietnam.

The central province of Ha Tinh has attracted the largest investment from Taiwanese businesses with 14 projects worth $8 billion, while most of the projects are in the southern provinces of Dong Nai and Binh Duong and HCMC.

Germany wants to transfer milk processing technology to Vinamilk

German officials have expressed interest in the transfer of dairy processing and packaging technology to Vietnam’s leading dairy producer Vinamilk.

A delegation from the German Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection recently paid a working visit to Vietnam and held a working session with the Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk) on September 30.

The ministry’s State Secretary Robert Kloos said Germany can supply breeding cows and farm technology to Vinamilk, as well as assisting Vinamilk to penetrate the German market.

General Director and President of the Executive Board of Vinamilk Mai Kieu Lien said the company plans to invest around US$100 million in the next five years to build a powder milk plant with an annual capacity of 54,000 tonnes and a milk plant with an annual capacity of 400 million litres scheduled to be put into operation in 2012. Vinamilk also expects to open a plant with an annual capacity of 64.4 million litres of milk and 240 million pots of yoghurt this year.

Tokyo to build water purification plant in Hanoi

A Tokyo based business will establish a joint-venture with a clean water company in Vietnam to build a large-scale water purification plant in Hanoi, announced Vice Governor of Tokyo, Naoki Inose, on October 4.

As scheduled, TSS, a clean water company based in Tokyo, and Japan’s Metawater Co. Ltd., will co-ordinate with Hanoi Water Supply Company and a local construction company to set up the joint-venture.

The new plant will be built in 2012 with total investment estimated to reach 10-20 billion yen (equivalent to US$130-260 million). Vietnam will contribute 50 percent of this investment. Currently, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is considering a financial contribution to the project. In the initial years of operation, the plant is designed to produce 150,000 cu.m, and will increase its capacity to 300,000 cu.m by 2020.

TSS will take an active part in the management of the plant and will directly supply the world-standard technology to prevent water loss.  

Vice Governor of Tokyo, Naoki Inose said this is the first time local authorities in Japan will directly participate in a clean water supply project in a foreign country. Previously, Osaka city got involved in the construction of a water purification plant in HCM City, but only assisted in the field of technology rather than management.   

Currently, the clean water demand of Hanoi is estimated at approximately 550,000 cu.m per day. However, the demand is predicted to increase to 1-1.5 million cu.m per day due to urbanization and an increase in the number of businesses, leading to a potential risk of lacking clean water supplies.     

Rubber exports likely to exceed US$3.6 billion

Vietnam expects to export 820,000 tonnes of rubber worth more than US$3.6 billion this year compared to last year’s US$2.3 billion, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

The country shipped around 80,000 tonnes of rubber in September, earning US$342 million and raising the total rubber export in the past nine months to 530,000 tonnes, up 3.3 percent in volume and 61.1 percent in value against the same period last year.

China remains Vietnam’s leading natural rubber importer with 275,000 tonnes shipped so far worth US$1.17 billion, accounting for 61 percent of China’s market share.

Vietnam now has 800,000 hectares of rubber trees.

Vietnam to re-import US beef

The Prime Minister has allowed the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) to consider a plan to re-import beef from the US.

The PM asked MARD to work with the US Embassy in Hanoi, demonstrating Vietnam’s goodwill toward the opening of its door to the import of US beef.

The PM assigned the Ministry of Health to lay down criteria on food safety and hygiene for this product to be penetrated and circulated in the country.

This is the first time Vietnam has allowed the import of US beef following food poisoning cases caused by the mad cow disease in 2003.

Tax changes urged to boost ailing stock market

Tax changes that might help rejuvenate the Vietnamese stock market were discussed at a conference in Hanoi on October 4.  

“Security companies are a high risk when stock prices go down, so new regulations that allow for write-off of devalued stocks are necessary,” said the head of the State Securities Commission’s Market Development Department, Nguyen Son.

Securities companies are not currently able to enjoy the provisions of Ministry of Finance Circular No228/2009/TT-BTC on write-offs of inventories, losses of financial investments, bad debts and payments on warranties for goods and construction works.

“In the short term, the Ministry should entitle these firms to apply the regulations in the circular”, Son said.

The 10 percent tax rate applied to interest income of companies on foreign loans was also high in the context of weak capital markets, he said, particularly since a 5 percent rate was imposed on such income received by individuals.

The tax on all income of foreign investors should be reduced to 5 percent, which would create more favourable opportunities for Vietnamese enterprises to attract foreign investment, Son argued.

Many securities services should also be exempt from value added tax (VAT), including brokerage, underwriting, investment consulting, share custody, management of securities portfolios and margin trading, he suggested.

Footwear companies step up

Local footwear firms are enjoying buoyant business figures.

Unlike a bleak 2009, local footwear export firms are running at full capacity for rising export orders in 2011.

Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association (Lefaso) chairman Nguyen Duc Thuan said Sao Vang, Dinh Vang, Dong Hung or Truong Loi footwear companies were especially making hay while the sun shined.

Soaring labour and production costs in China - the world’s leading footwear exporter – had seen a orders flow to Vietnam.

Besides, since local footwear firms have established a solid reputation in the world market, said Thuan.

Haiphong-based Dinh Vang Company Limited general director assistant Dao Xuan Long said the firm raked in $82.5 million from exports in the year ending September, a 132 per cent jump against August 2010.

Parallel to rising exports to the EU market as it removed anti-dumping tariffs for made-in-Vietnam upper-leather shoes, Dinh Vang is expanding exports to South Korea, Japan and some countries in Asia-Pacific.

The company was confident it was within reach to fulfill 2011’s export target of $108 million, said Long.

Lien Phat Footwear Company’s director Tran Ngoc Lien said the firm inked export contracts for 2011 with traditional customers.

“We have opened many more branches in rural and remote areas to take advantage of a vast labour pool in these areas,” said Lien.

Thuan believed the footwear sector was in a position to fully achieve the year’s $6 billion target with many firms about to negotiate next year’s orders.

However, firms are concerned the minimum salary hike starting from October 1, 2011 would drive up costs.

The footwear sector reaped $4.8 billion from export in the first nine months of 2011, surging 30 per cent on-year. Of this, export figure from June until present mounted to $580-$640 million per month.

Vietnam’s big footwear markets are EU, the US and Japan. Specifically, the US imported around $1.3 billion footwear products from Vietnam in January-September, up 40 per cent on-year.

Market proves tough to corner

Vinatex mart is still striving for a greater slice of the home market.

After a decade of development the Vinatex mart system, which specialises in selling locally made textile and garment products made by businesses under Vinatex, has demonstrated its leading role in clothing distribution in the domestic market.

The system’s total revenue exceeded VND2 trillion ($96.6 million) in 2010 and estimated to reach VND2.5 trillion ($120.7 million) in 2011 against VND300 billion ($14.5 million) in its first year of operation a decade ago.

Trade experts, however, said Vinatex mart system should reap more impressive revenue figures with a larger hold on the domestic market since most of the marts occupy premier locations in urban areas and have good relationships with big firms under Vinatex.

Vinatex mart system director Nguyen Thi Hong Huong acknowledged Vinatex’s retail outlets were neither ideal shopping venues for local consumers nor dominated markets in big cities.

“We urge local [textile and garment] producers to further ameliorate product quality and designs for supply to our marts. In fact, many our suppliers offer products of affordable prices and fair quality, but the designs remain poor.

“Though our revenue growth exceeded 30 per cent per year in recent years, these figures do not reflect the scope of our marts in the home market,” said Huong.

The Vinatex mart system currently consists of 58 supermarkets in 20 cities and provinces across the country.

In 2010, the textile and garment sector raked in over VND60 trillion ($2.9 billion) in home market’s sales revenue, with around VND14 trillion ($676.3 million) coming from Vinatex.

Vinatex encompasses over 100 member companies and allied businesses many of them have developed reputed brands captivating the trust of consumers both at home and abroad such as Manhattan, San Sciaro, TT-up, Vee Sandy or Novely.

The owners of such brands reported high revenue figures in the home market such as Viet Tien Garment Joint Stock Company which grabbed VND500 billion ($24.1 million) in home market revenue in 2010 and Phong Phu Corporation VND1.5 trillion ($72.4 million).

Building materials sector to up production

Hanoi has established a plan to increase production in its building material industry by 2020.

Under the plan, the industry will grow by five times between now and 2015 and six times by 2020, accounting for 6 per cent of the capital's total industries and providing jobs for 12,000 labourers.

According to the municipal People's Committee, a number of activities will be undertaken to achieve the project objectives. To start, the capital would invest in improving clay burnt bricks technology while discontinuing the operation of all old manual brick kilns next year.

In addition, non-burnt brick production units will be constructed in an effort to boost brick production by 40 per cent for an annual capacity of more than 3 million bricks by 2015.

Safer and more efficient materials such as composite and insulating materials that do not contain asbestos will be used to develop 26.7 million square metres of ceramic and decorative tiles per year.

The plan also targets investment in modern stone processing technologies and the use of recycled materials to reduce environmental pollution.

Companies exploiting sand in the Hong (Red), Da, Ca Lo, Cong and Cau rivers will be rearranged to meet the new material demands

The plan aims to meet the capital's demand for quality building materials while also creating an excess to sell to other provinces and export markets and improving local living standards.

Vietnam’s biggest domestic merger is rubber-stamped

In Vietnam’s biggest domestic merger, Vinpearl JSC (coded VPL) and Vincom JSC (coded VIC) will join hands to become Vietnam Investment Group Company, or Vingroup.

The two companies yesterday announced their decision on the merger with aim to increasing financial capability, brand promotion, business expansions and investment.

After merging, Vinpearl’s Ho Chi Minh Stock Market stocks will be changed to Vincom (VIC) and this will be also the official stock of Vingroup.

Le Khac Hiep, deputy chairman of Vingroup and chairman of Vincom’s board of management, said: “As all of us know that Vincom has operated in real estate and Vinpearl is in tourism and those fields are closely connected. I am sure that the merger will create a new strength for the company in the market in the time to come.”

“Moreover, in the strategy to expand its business to the world, deeply joining the global economic integration, with this merger we hope to form a group company which has international strength and enough capability to compete with other foreign groups,” Hiep added.

He said Vingroup would develop with Vincom (real estate), Vinpearl (tourism-entertainment), Vincharm (beauty care and health) and Vinmec (health care services).

Vincom had chartered capital of more than VND3.9 trillion ($188 million) up to October 4, 2011 and the market capitalisation of this company is valued at more than VND36.96 trillion ($1.78 billion). It owns a range of property projects such as Vincom Centres in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vincom Village, Times City and Royal City.

Meanwhile, Vinpearl had chartered capital at VND2 trillion ($96.6 million) and market capitalisation as of October 4, at more than VND17.46 trillion ($843 billion). It operates a range of leading complexes and tourist projects located along Vietnam with the Vinpearl brand.

The two companies have been considered sisters, despite working as independent companies.

Vincom and Vinpearl’s stocks have been market leaders and the deal makes Pham Nhat Vuong, the stockholder of 153 million VIC and 19.8 million VPL stocks, the wealthiest person in Vietnam, in terms of stock holdings, with total value of nearly $1 billion as of September 2011.

Seminar looks at APEC 2011 opportunities

Policymakers, business representatives and scholars exchanged views on Vietnam's opportunities is expected to grasp at the 2011 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Meeting

The seminar in Hanoi on October 4, themed “APEC 2011 – Vietnam ’s new opportunities”, was organised by Hanoi Foreign Trade University (FTU), the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and Hawaii University of the US .

FTU rector, Prof. Hoang Van Chau said the seminar aimed to provide information regarding major issues at APEC 2011 to businesses, relevant agencies and research and training centres, highlighting opportunities for economic development in regional countries and territories and particularly in Vietnam, Vinh said.

The seminar also helped APEC 2011 coordinating agencies to identify directions for Vietnam, Chau said.

He stressed that participation in APEC – recognised as the most dynamic global economic organisation – has brought many benefits for members, including Vietnam.

The rector used the occasion to underline FTU’s efforts to contribute to the country’s socio-economic development, especially in research and support for policymakers.

Hawaii University’s president Mary Rita Cooke Greenwood, who is also a member of APEC 2011’s organisation board, said young people are trusted at APEC 2011’s activities, adding that Hawaii University has launched many programmes that involve the participation of students.

Greenwood praised FTU’s initiative in organising the seminar, considering this a practical move to prepare for Vietnam’s presence in APEC 2011.

Other issues such as fighting crises and inflation, sustainable development, trade promotion and opportunities and challenges to Vietnamese businesses when joining APEC were also discussed at the seminar.

The 2011 APEC Leaders’ Meeting is scheduled for November in Hawaii.

Office buildings have difficulty finding tenants

New office buildings have lowered leasing prices to attract tenants to fill up space given ample supply, said a property market expert.

Adam Bury, head of research and consulting for CB Richard Ellis Vietnam (CBRE), said some new Grade A office buildings needed to reconsider their leasing strategies if they wanted to attract clients.

HCMC’s tallest building Bitexco Financial Tower, for example, has 37,000 square meters of office for lease, but its occupancy is only 35% after its opening in November last year. Similarly, Vincom Center on Dong Khoi Street has occupancy of 50% among its 80,000 square meters for lease after the building was put into service in April last year.

Some other Grade B office buildings such as REE Tower in District 4, Dragon Tower in Nha Be District and Maritime Bank Tower in District 1 that have just come into operation are still looking for tenants.

It normally takes office building owners at least two years to have the total office space filled up, especially when the supply is higher than the demand like it is now.

Office leasing prices in all grades continued to go down in the third quarter against the previous quarter. The price of Grade A office dropped slightly to US$34 per square meter while that of Grades B and C is US$18 and US$15 respectively, according to CBRE.

This is the 8th quarter in a row to see a drop in office rent in HCMC. Prices of grades A, B and C offices have gone down by around 7%, 8% and 9.5% respectively from the same period last year.

Vacancy is still high despite a drop in prices, at around 31% for Grade A, 18% for Grade B and 10% for Grade C. HCMC now has about 1.8 million square meters of office space for lease in all grades.

Tenants seem to prefer smaller offices of less than 250 square meters each, contributing to a drop in demand, said Bury.

There was some 39,000 square meters of office space occupied in the third quarter and 120,000 square meters in the January-September period. The figures were much lower than 220,000 square meters last year.

The office leasing prices in HCMC might fall further in the future due to current tough market conditions, according to some market observers.
 
Petrolimex denies putting pressure

Vietnam National Petroleum Corporation (Petrolimex) insists that it has put no pressure on the Ministry of Finance to adjust the price of fuel this year.

The ministry has made a number of changes in the price of fuel in 2011 and a source from the ministry claims Petrolimex is lying.

“Since the beginning of the year, Petrolimex hasn’t proposed increasing or cutting the fuel price despite the current huge gap between local and world prices reaching up to US$40 a barrel,” Tran Minh Hai, a representative of Petrolimex said in a statement.

Hai stressed that his company had strictly adhered to the instructions from the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Industry and Trade.

However, a source from the Ministry of Finance told the Daily that this year the ministry has received four separate petitions from Petrolimex for raising the fuel retail price or hiking the proportion of money from the price stabilization fund.

The first document was sent to the ministry on February 16, suggesting increasing the retail price of gasoline by 17%-24%.

The ministry later decided to increase the price by VND2,900 to VND19,300 from VND16,400 per liter for gasoline and by VND3,550 to VND18,300 from VND14,750 per liter for diesel.

After that, the ministry received three other proposals on March 24, April 26 and May 31 from the company and also adjusted the prices accordingly.

The Ministry of Finance asserted that its management and decisions are based on reality, including suggestions for price hikes from fuel traders.
 
Central bank to keep pumping funds via OMO

The central bank’s move to continuing injecting capital via open market operations (OMO) last week has partly removed concerns over liquidity among small banks that are set to lose big customers to larger lenders when Circular 30 comes into effect.

Circular 30 issued by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) rules that a maximum interest rate of no more than 6% a year for call deposits or deposits in Vietnam dong with terms less than a month will be effective from Saturday.

Last week was the second successive week SBV has pumped a huge amount of money into the open market via five sessions with total value of VND6 trillion, comprising VND2 trillion as refinancing loans aimed at state-owned lenders when their existing loans mature.

From September 19 to 23, the central bank injected over VND4 trillion and withdrew VND3 trillion. The open market saw the registration value fall by 26% compared to the previous week to VND37 trillion and the bid value reached VND27 trillion.

Notably, SBV last week didn’t withdraw money via the open market as usual since the lending term was adjusted from one week to two weeks.

Over the past four weeks, the central bank has pumped VND29 trillion through OMO with annual interest rates at 14% as a determination to cool down interest rates and support commercial banks to improve liquidity.

Currently, the overnight inter-bank rate stays at 12.5%-13%. The one week term swings 13% either way while the two week term ranges between 13%-14% and one month term mostly maintains at 13%-14.5% annually.

However, the inter-bank rate last Thursday sharply increased, seeing one month term rising to 16% and later inching up to 15.6% last weekend.

Observers said Vietnam dong liquidity of the banking system is being secured and the inter-bank rate might be stable in the coming days. The problem is that the demand for dong borrowing may not decrease this month as a number of recapitalizations come to maturity.

BaoViet Securities said that the central bank next week would likely withdraw around VND27 trillion and continue to inject money into the open market in an effort to ensure the banking system remains liquid.

According to some lenders in HCMC, dong mobilization has gone down slightly but liquidity in Vietnam dong has stayed stable. Annual lending rates for agriculture, rural areas and export are recorded at 17%-19%, for production and business at 18%-21% and for non-productive industries at 22%-25% per year.

It is forecast that lending rates will hover around 17%-19% in the fourth quarter this year. This means that local firms still have difficulty accessing banking loans in Vietnam dong and they have to keep borrowing the U.S. dollar instead, resulting in pressure on Vietnam dong depreciation towards the year-end.
 
Russians, Malaysians head for Nha Trang

Large numbers of Russian and Malaysian tourists will arrive in Cam Ranh International Airport in Khanh Hoa Province via chartered flights to visit Nha Trang from the year-end to early next year.

Khanh Hoa Province’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said from next month to March next year, monthly charter flights will bring Russian visitors to the beach city for sightseeing tours.

In November, chartered flights will come from Malacca state of Malaysia to Cam Ranh Bay.

Anh Duong Co just signed a business cooperation contract with Moscow-based Turkish Pegas Touristik Company, which specializes in organizing international tours for Russians from late October to early May next year.

As planned, there will be a flight carrying around 180 visitors to Cam Ranh daily.

Khanh Hoa took part in two promotion programs in Moscow and St Petersburg last month. The province expects to welcome more Russian tourists when Vietnam Airlines operates direct flights linking Russia and Cam Ranh.

At present, the carrier plans to operate Moscow-HCMC and Moscow-Nha Trang routes twice to four times a week.
 
Industrial index on the decline

The country’s Index of Industrial Production (IIP) has substantially decelerated over the past few months, showing difficulties facing manufacturers although industrial stockpiling has fallen of late, said the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The September index rose a mere 2.1% against August, showing a continuous slowdown in recent months. The month-on-month index was 4.6% in June, some 6.1% in July, and 4.3% in August, according to the ministry.

Still, the index for the January-September period was recorded at 7.8% year-on-year.

The decelerating index is attributed to slow consumption of manufactured goods as well as the stagnant tempo of construction due to the Government’s tightening of public investment.

The high borrowing cost is also to blame for the situation, as enterprises find it hard to take out loans for production.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade also noted that the stockpile of industrial items has fallen.

Stockpiled goods in the processing industry as of early September had decreased by 5.5% year-on-year, but the reduction was seen mainly in the category of consumer goods, such as butter with a fall of 18%, pulp with 22%, and ready-cast metal appliances some 26.8%.

Meanwhile, the stockpile of manufactured products of higher added value had been on the increase, such as cement at 60%, automobiles and motorcycles 50.4%, and electric cables and wires nearly 31%.

PV