While Vietnam’s shrimp export was on downward trend in August, tra fish posted an impressive export growth, reported the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

From 456 million USD in May, shrimp brought home only 365 million USD in August.

In the first eight months of this year, shrimp export hit 3 billion USD, up 22.5% year-on-year.

Deputy Director of the VASEP’s Training and Trade Promotion Centre Le Hang attributed the falling shrimp export to rising input costs and unfavourable weather conditions while the market demand stalled due to increasing inventories. Because of inflation, exports to the US and China have fallen since July.

In the US, Vietnamese shrimps account for nearly 10% of market share while India and Indonesia make up around 20% each, and Ecuador alone 40% thanks to its proximity to the US which results in cheaper transport costs.

Meanwhile, tra fish export soared by 114% annually to 187 million USD in August. Its shipments maintained 2-3 digit growth.

On an eight-month calculation, tra fish raked in some 1.8 billion USD, up 81% year-on-year.

Market unlikely to see strong correction this week
     
The market traded cautiously last week with no big support force, as it closed on Thursday and Friday for Independence Day. It is unlikely to make a deep correction this week, but can continue to accumulate on a new price basis, according to experts.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) ended last week at 1,280.51 points, up 0.09 per cent, while the HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX) slid 0.66 per cent to 291.92 points.

For the week, the VN-Index fell slightly 0.16 per cent, and the HNX-Index lost 2.53 per cent.

Trading value on three exchanges exceeded US$1 billion last Monday, the highest since April, after the T+2 settlement cycle was put into operation.

Analysts from Saigon-Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS) said that the market benchmark continued to increase in the last session of August 2022, heading to a range of 1,285 - 1,290 points as expected, but trading volume kept declining compared to the previous session. The market was still positive, as profitable short-term opportunities remained. This showed that the market still has good investment opportunities, SHS said.

The VN-Index marked a second consecutive monthly gain last month, with an increase of 6.15 per cent month-on-month, while the trading volume also improved. It is expected to continue to lean towards the psychological resistance of around 1,300 points in September.

Currently, the VN-Index is forming an uptrend with a support zone of ​​1,260-1,270 points.

From a long-term perspective, the market is still accumulating on the basis of low valuation compared to the average of the last five years, in a context where the economy continues to grow, according to SHS. As a result, investors with reasonable stock proportions should consider selectively disbursing and accumulating ticker symbols with growth prospects in the third quarter of 2022, which are attracting short-term cash flow.

Meanwhile, Tan Viet Securities JSC said that the VN-Index witnessed positive performance in the last trading session, with a small rise and the majority of gainers. The market’s liquidity continued to decrease due to holiday pressure, while direct matching value on HOSE was only around VND11.7 trillion.

The movements of the last trading session and the recoveries of the previous two sessions indicated that market sentiment was calm ahead of the holidays.

While global markets were still in a bearish trend, the trading behaviour of the Vietnamese market showed stability. Low liquidity had been a minus point for the market in the last two sessions, but this often happened before the holidays, the securities firm said.

In the event that the world stock market does not have many negative movements, the opportunities for differentiation would open up next week.

According to Dong A Securities Corporation, the market continued to trade cautiously with low liquidity, mixed performance among large-cap stocks, and no consensus support. As investors were worried about adverse movements in the global market during the holidays, the buying force was weak.

The resistance level of ​​1,300 points is becoming difficult to break in the short term, while the negative impact from the international market caused the VN-Index to correct. However, with the stability of Viet Nam’s macroeconomic environment, the stock market expects to benefit from favourable policies such as loosening credit growth targets.

Therefore, the market is unlikely to make a deep correction this week, but can continue to accumulate on the new price base. 

Vietnam an important link in Asian supply chain

The nation is becoming an important link in the Asian supply chain, a new destination for a number of businesses that need to diversify their supply chains, according to international media.

Japan’s Nikkei Assia reported that Vietnam is attracting world’s major chip manufacturers. In addition to Apple, Samsung, and Panasonic, which are expanding their scales, the US Company Synopsys has recently said it will support engineer training and establish a chip design center in the Southeast Asian nation.

It’s worth noting that Vietnam is increasingly attracting more and more high-tech groups.

Okuda Yoshiki, development advisor of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) said that in the past, not only Japan, but many other countries relied on Chinese production.  However, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic caused disruption to supply chains. Currently, shifting factories to Vietnam is becoming a trend of great concern to Japan, he went on to say.

According to Retail News, a page providing the latest retail news throughout the Asian retail market on a daily base, Boeing wants to develop its supply chain in Vietnam by making more domestic businesses its suppliers.

The Vietnam Briefing page had an article “Why Vietnam becomes a promising choice for American businesses in Asia”, which cited Vietnam’s skilled and low-cost workforce, stable infrastructure, safe environment, and free trade agreements.

Chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham) Alain Cany stated that Vietnam needs to continue to maintain a reliable and consistent policy on work permits, including those for experts, and length of stay,  while ensuring coordination between central and local authorities in order to further attract foreign investors.

The Vietnamese government is on the right track and growth will be sustained in the coming months, he added.

The stable foreign investment capital, and major groups intensifying their supply chains to Vietnam is a testament to the government's flexible economic policy and a positive outlook for the Vietnamese economy in the time ahead.

Rubber exports hit US$320 million in August

Vietnam exported around 210,000 tonnes of rubber worth US$320 million in August, up 6.9% in volume and 0.3% in value against the previous month.

According to the statistics of Import and Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the figures also represented year-on-year increases of 11% in volume and 3% in value.

The rubber export price averaged US$1,523 per tonne in August, down 6.2% against July and 7.2% as compared to the same period last year.

The first eight months of this year saw Vietnam ship abroad 1.19 million tonnes of rubber valued at US$2 billion, up 7.8% and 8.1% year-on-year, respectively.

Vietnam is one of the five largest rubber suppliers to China along with Thailand, Malaysia, Japan and the Republic of Korea. Statistics show it was China’s second largest rubber supplier in the first seven months of the year, with a total value of US$1.18 billion up 10.6% year on year.

Vietnam’s rubber market share in China’s total import value also rose 0.1% to 15.4% in the reviewed period.

China remains a major buyer of Vietnamese natural and synthetic rubber in the remaining months of the year. However, experts say supply chain disruptions caused by China's "Zero-Covid" policy will certainly continue to affect its rubber consumption in the coming months.

Building brands key to expand presence in the UK market
     
Vietnamese businesses are advised to better exploit the UK-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA) to build and develop brands and expand their presence in the UK market amid stiffer competition driven by the “Global Britain” policy.

After Brexit, Britain is reaching new partners as an independent actor and Viet Nam, together with Singapore, are the two ASEAN countries that have signed a free trade deal with the UK, showing their important position in the UK’s trade policy.

The UKVFTA, which officially came into force in May 2021, has been a key driver for rapid trade growth between the two markets.

Total trade in goods and services (exports plus imports) between the UK and Viet Nam reached £5.7 billion (US$6.6 billion) in the four quarters to the end of Q1 2022, up 15 per cent from the four quarters to the end of Q1 2021, the latest data from the UK’s Department for International Trade showed.

Of this, Viet Nam’s exports to the UK increased 18.3 per cent to £4.8 billion, while total UK exports to Viet Nam amounted to £905 million, up 0.2 per cent.

Despite the growth, ample room is unexploited when Viet Nam is the UK’s 36th largest trading partner, accounting for just 0.4 per cent of total UK trade.

Agro, forestry, aquatic exports surge 13 per cent in eight months
     
Viet Nam's export value of agro, forestry, aquatic products in the first eight months of the year hit about US$36.3 billion, a year-on-year rise of 13.1 per cent, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

Of which, the export value of major agricultural products in the eight months was estimated at $15 billion, while the value stood at $11.8 billion from forest products, $7.5 billion from seafood products and $258.6 million from livestock products.

In August, the export value from these products reached nearly $4.4 billion, a rise of 32 per cent year on year and 0.3 per cent month on month.

During the first eight months, the trade value of these products was estimated to reach $66.2 billion, up 8.7 per cent on the year. Therefore, the agriculture sector enjoyed a trade surplus of $6.3 billion in that period, a surge of 94.6 per cent over the same period last year.

In January-August, seven products gained export value exceeding $2 billion, including coffee, rubber, rice, vegetables and fruits, cashew nuts, shrimp, and wooden furniture.

Many products saw an upturn in exports, such as coffee (40.3 per cent), rubber (8.1 per cent), rice (8.1 per cent), peppercorn (8.2 per cent), cassava (22.5 per cent), tra fish (82.6 per cent), shrimp (22 per cent), and furniture (6.5 per cent).

However, a downturn was also recorded in some other products, including vegetables and fruits (13.9 per cent), cashew nuts (nearly 10.4 per cent), and livestock products (12.3 per cent).

In the first eight months of this year, Asia remained the major market for Vietnamese agro, forestry and seafood products, accounting for 43.1 per cent of the total export volume, while America ranked second with 28.9 per cent and Europe third with 11.8 per cent.

The US continued to be the largest export market of those products, with revenue of about $9.6 billion, followed by China with $6.5 billion and Japan with $2.7 billion.

In the first eight months, the agriculture sector exported valuable and quality products to many countries, such as mango, dragon fruit, passion fruit, longan and lychee, especially those with big markets such as the EU, US, Australia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, China, Middle East and ASEAN.

Coffee exports bring in nearly US$3 billion over eight months

Vietnam exported 1.24 million tonnes of coffee worth US$2.82 billion during the opening eight months of the year, representing increases 14.7% in volume and 39.6% in value year on year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).

The MoIT anticipated that coffee export turnover by the end of September is likely to exceed US$3.07 billion, equivalent to the figure recorded last year.

Coffee prices in both domestic and global markets have increased significantly since the beginning of the year.

August alone witnessed the average export price of Vietnamese coffee stand at an estimated US$2,336 per tonne, marking an increase of 1.6% compared to July and a 16.1% increase compared to August last year. Over eight months, the average export price of Vietnamese coffee also rose 21.7% to  US$2,268 per tonne.

Exports of almost all types of coffee witnessed an upward trend, with the exception of Excelsa coffee, which experienced a sharp decline in turnover in the reviewed period.

Elsewhere, eight-month Robusta coffee exports reached 1.01 million tonnes worth nearly US$2 billion, up 20.1% in volume and 48.7% in value.

Global coffee prices look set to continue edging up due to a general shortage of supply sources – a factor that fuels coffee prices.

According to a Bloomberg survey, global coffee stocks by the end of September are expected to have halved compared to the same period from last year. Vietnamese coffee production is also expected to decline by 6% to 1.72 million tonnes during the 2022 - 2023 crop.

According to data provided by the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association, providing that the coffee products maintain their high prices, the local coffee industry is projected to set a record high export turnover of US$4 billion for the entire year.

Be Group receives loan of up to $100 million from Deutsche Bank

Be Group JSC, the owner and developer of the on-demand multi-service consumer platform Be, secured a loan facility of up to $100 million from Deutsche Bank.

Be Group would use the proceeds to continue scaling up its three primary consumer services: on-demand ride-hailing (car and bike), food delivery, and its digital bank arm Cake by VPBank, along with new expansions.

The financing will facilitate Be Group‘s ambition to become the leading on-demand multi-service consumer platform for Vietnamese users, and strongly establish itself as a local champion of Vietnam’s tech scene.

Lam Dong imports copyright flower varieties for production development

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Central Highlands of Lam Dong has just issued a plan to implement the project ‘Importing copyright flower varieties for the development of flower production’ between 2021 and 2025.

In the project, many flower varieties are imported from the Netherlands, Japan, Thailand, USA, Israel, France, Kenya, Ecuador, Spain, Denmark and China.

According to the plan, a total of nearly 1.3 million seeds, tops, plants, leaves, and flower bulbs of all kinds such as roses, safflower (calla lily), amaryllis , daffodils, alfalfa spiralis, chrysanthemums, dahlias, ranunculus, poinsettia will be imported to serve flower production in Lam Dong with a value of more than VND14.7 billion (US$628,559).

Flower varieties will be imported by four member companies of the Da Lat Flower Association, then distributed and transferred to groups of farmers, cooperatives, and businesses that have contracts with businesses along the value chain.

HCMC to build strategic vision for data sharing

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Information and Communications has cooperated with World Bank in Vietnam to hold a conference named ‘Building a Strategic Vision for Data in HCMC’, aiming at discussing related matters to data uses and administration to serve the operations of the municipal authorities and boost the digital transformation in the city.

Deputy Director Vo Thi Trung Trinh of the HCMC Information and Communications Department shared that her department is consulting HCMC People’s Committee on suitable mechanisms for data sharing and administration in order to form one unique information system for administration procedures in HCMC. Thanks to this, city dwellers and businesses can easily and quickly access public services.

Before this, her department and World Bank in Vietnam have conducted a survey to assess the needs for data uses and administration of state agencies and units in HCMC, thereby identifying the three data categories to serve urban management; urban development planning; and citizens as well as economic, financial activities in the city.

Industrial production bounces back quickly

Vietnam’s industrial production is roaring back as the country saw the industrial production index (IPI) in August rise by 2.9% month-on-month and 15.6% year-on-year, according to the General Statistics Office.

Data of the office showed that the processing and manufacturing sector posted a year-on-year IPI increase of 16.2% in August, followed by electricity generation and distribution at 14.8%.

Other industries that posted a higher IPI in August included water supply, waste treatment and mining.

The index between January and August improved 9.4% year-on-year, the local media reported.

During the eight-month period, the IPI of some key industries soared compared to the same period last year, such as beverage production (26.8%), clothing (22.5%), and leather and related products (18.5%).

Main products that recorded a high year-on-year IPI increase included beer (31.2%), processed seafood (20.7%), phone parts (19.6%) and automobiles (13.9%).

On the negative side, rubber and plastic production reported an IPI decrease of 6.3%, while crude oil, natural gas and metal manufacturing also saw a drop in IPI during the eight-month period.

As many as 61 cities and provinces enjoyed an IPI increase during the January-August period, mainly backed by the quick recovery of the processing-manufacturing and electricity distribution sectors, while the remaining two localities reported a drop.

In August, the number of workers at industrial firms nationwide inched up 0.6% month-on-month and soared by 23.2% year-on-year.

Economic experts said that the Government and the ministries and departments have promptly removed obstacles facing firms to help them rebound quickly.

HCMC’s August retail sales inch down

August saw a decline in HCMC’s retail sales of goods while the country’s retail sector posted positive growth during the same period.

The city’s total revenue from retail sales of goods and services in the period was put at VND98,840 billion, down 1.1% against July, said the director of the HCMC Department of Planning and Investment, Le Thi Huynh Mai. She was speaking at a conference on the city’s socioeconomic performance in August and the first eight months of the year.

Of them, revenue from commerce dropped by 0.8%, tourism by 13.5%, and other services by 1.7%. Only accommodation and catering services inched up 0.2%.

Although this nears a 150% year-on-year increase, the comparison is not accurate as retail sales last year plunged 59.4% due to the city being hit hard by the pandemic.

Meanwhile, commercial activities and services in other parts of the country almost recovered in all sectors, achieving positive growth compared to last year and 2019 when Covid-19 had not emerged.

According to statistics from the General Statistics Office, total retail sales of goods and services in August reached VND481.2 trillion, up 0.6% over last month and 50.2% year-on-year. The GSO said the performance of the retail sector in August was still better than the same month of the pre-pandemic years.

Chairman of the city Phan Van Mai said at the meeting that growth in the January-August period was higher than in the same period last year but only due to the impact of Covid-19.

Besides, industrial production recovery was still slow, and industrial parks seemed to reduce production and export value.

HCMC records tourism boom during four-day holiday

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism said that during the National Day (September 2) holiday, around 920,000 turns of visitors traveled to points of entertainment parks in the city, comprising around 32,484 turns of international visitors, 365,000 turns of domestic ones and around 130,000 turns of people staying in the city. 

The room occupancy reached 75 percent on average and the total revenue from the tourism sector in the city was expected to reach VND2,740 billion (US$117 million) during the four-day holiday.

Meanwhile, the Department of Tourism of Hanoi said that around 422,700 visitors paid visit to the capital city during the holiday, including 400,000 turns of domestic travelers and the rest ones being international visitors. The total revenue is expected to gain VND1,300 billion (US$56 million) during the holiday.

In addition, the room occupancy was calculated to reach around 40.5 percent on average, comprising 23.5 percent domestic visitors and around 17 percent international ones, mostly from Japan, China, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, the Republic of Korea, Finland and so on.

Tourism points in the Central region such as Hue, Da Nang, Hoi An lured more visitors than the pre-Covid-19 pandemic period.

Accordingly, around 15,000 to 20,000 turns of visitors moved to Hoi An everyday during the National Day holiday, mostly from the Republic of Korea and Japan. Besides, the Department of Tourism of Da Nang City said that the number of visitors to the city during the four-day off holiday increased by around 58 percent over the same period in 2019.

Concerning to transport situation, people in the Mekong Delta region yesterday streamed back to Ho Chi Minh City and Southeastern provinces causing traffic congestion at the gateways in the region triggering the shutdown of the BOT toll station in Rach Mieu Bridge.

The Bien Hoa- Vung Tau Expressway Investment and Development Joint Stock Company (BVEC) said that the T2 toll station in Long Phuoc Ward, Long Thanh District in National Highway No.51 heading to Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province from Dong Nai Province was forced to close down 16 times under high pressure of around 41,000 turns of vehicles.

Traffic congestion also happened in the Ho Chi Minh City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay Expressway due to the high volume of vehicles from Vung Tau City and Dong Nai Province.

Representative of the BOT Phap Van – Cau Gie Company said that the traffic volume through Phap Van – Cau Gie expressway in September reached around 100,000 turns.

Maintenance of Dung Quat oil refinery slated for mid-2023

Dung Quat Refinery will undertake the fifth maintenance that will last for 50 days from June 22, 2023, according to Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Joint Stock Company (BSR).

The company said that during this maintenance, it will focus on strengthening risk management and optimising the bidding package distribution plans. It will strive to shorten the maintenance period to about 43-45 days.

There will be six main bidding packages in which BSR's personnel directly conduct the maintenance of several parts, including the compressor system, rotating equipment, automation system, and electric equipment.

The last overall maintenance of Dung Quat Refinery took place in June 2021.

Dung Quat Refinery, which is located in the Dung Quat Economic Zone, Binh Son district of central Quang Ngai province, has a refining capacity of 148,000 barrels per day (6.5 million tones crude oil annually) and can process 67 types of crude oil from various parts of the world. The plant’s products include Mogas A92/A95 and E5/10; Jet A1/Jet A1K fuels; kerosene; diesel; fuel oil (FO); liquefied petroleum gas (LPG); propylene; polypropylene resins and sulfur.

Source: VNA/SGT/VNS/VOV/Dtinews/SGGP/VGP/Hanoitimes