Vietnam saw its trade surplus surging to US$2.18 billion as of the end of last month, as exports expanded in the month while imports tumbled, according to statistics of the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

A worker checks a machine producing tires at the company Casumina. Vietnam enjoys a trade surplus of nearly US$2.2 billion in Jan.-Oct.

The country’s trade volume of US$38.4 billion rose 2.2% in October over September. Exports edged up 4.9% month-on-month to US$20.29 billion while imports inched down 0.7% to US$18.11 billion.

Mobile phones and phone components remained the biggest export earner with US$5.26 billion in October, growing 8.4% over the previous month.

Vietnam enjoyed a trade surplus of US$2.56 billion in the first ten months of the year, which is an impressive result as Vietnam faced monthly trade deficits in the first half of this year, leading to a trade deficit of nearly US$3 billion as of end-June.

The country may continue gaining a trade surplus in the rest of the year.

In January-October, the country’s trade volume reached US$346.54 billion, up 21.5% over the year-ago period, with US$174.55 billion from exports and US$171.99 billion from imports, rising 21.3% and 21.6% year-on-year respectively.

China was Vietnam’s biggest trade partner with two-way trade amounting to US$73.3 billion, followed by South Korea with US$50.46 billion, the European Union (EU) with US$41.62 billion, and the U.S. with US$40.12 billion.

* In related news, data from the General Department of Vietnam Customs show Vietnamese exports to China posted the highest growth compared to exports to other Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies in January-October, at 52.9%.

China was Vietnam’s second largest export market among other APEC economies in the period with revenue of US$26.47 billion, making up 22% of Vietnam’s total exports to other APEC members.

Vietnam’s trade with APEC members amounted to US$265.31 billion in the ten-month period, up 17.4% year-on-year and nearly equal to revenue in all of last year. The country shipped US$120.48 billion worth of goods and spent US$144.83 billion on imports, rising 23.9% and 22% year-on-year respectively.

Thus, Vietnam had a trade deficit of US$24.36 billion with APEC members in the year to end-October. This trade gap is on a par with recent data, as Vietnam suffered from an annual average trade deficit of US$23.73 billion with APEC between 2010 and October this year.

In January-October, the U.S. remained Vietnam’s largest export market with revenue of US$34.53 billion, growing 9.6% versus the year-ago period and accounting for 28.7% of total exports of Vietnam to APEC.

While China was the second largest buyer of Vietnam’s goods, Japan ranked third with US$13.85 billion and South Korea came fourth with US$12.15 billion, representing 11.5% and 10.1% respectively.

According to the customs, Vietnam’s main exports to other APEC economies were cell phones and phone parts (up 48%), textile products (up 9.3%), computers, electronic products and their components (up 41.1%), machinery, equipment and accessories (up 25%), footwear (up 15.2%) and wood and wooden products (up 12.6%).

On the supply side, China remained the biggest exporter of goods to Vietnam with turnover of US$46.83 billion, up 16.1% year-on-year and accounting for nearly one-third of Vietnam’s total imports from APEC. It means Vietnam suffered a big trade deficit with China in the first ten months, at US$20.36 billion, the second biggest trade gap after South Korea.

Although South Korea was Vietnam’s second largest supplier with revenue of US$38.3 billion, soaring 46.7%, Vietnam’s trade deficit with South Korea amounted to US$26.15 billion.

Japan came third with US$13.27 billion worth of products shipped to Vietnam, a rise of 7.6%.

In the first ten months of 2017, Vietnam mainly imported computers, electronic products and components (up 35.5%), machinery, equipment and accessories (up 24.4%), phones and phone parts (up 49.2%), fabrics (up 8.6%), and iron and steel (up 6.4%) from other APEC members.

SGT