Electronics industry key to exports

In late February 2018, Nguyen Van Dung, director of Hung Dung JSC based in the northern province of Vinh Phuc, met with two new partners from Japan and the Republic of Korea (RoK) to sign new export orders on supplying the firm’s electronics items, with a total value of almost US$1 million.

“We have completed half of the contract so far. Since early this year, we have also been focusing on producing and exporting light-emitting diode (LED) products, in addition to our traditional items of electric lights for motorbikes and lighting equipment,” Dung told Nhan Dan Online.

“We have also used a large sum of money to import electronics items from the RoK and Japan for our production. It is expected that our export and import turnover will grow at approximately15% and 14%, respectively, in this year,” he said.

Dung’s firm has contributed to the bright picture of the electronics industry in Vinh Phuc in particular and in Vietnam in general.

The province’s Vinh Phuc Industrial Park authorities reported that in this year’s first quarter, electronics firms in the province reaped total revenues of US$595.16 million, up by a staggering 57% annually. Total export turnover hit an estimated US$558.44 million, up 50% annually.

In April, seven projects producing electronics products commenced operations in Vinh Phuc, such as Seyoung Electronics Vina, and Final.

The electronics industry, including mobile phones, computers and their spare parts, has acted as a key driver of the economy’s bright trade situation in this year’s first four months, with a four-month record trade surplus of US$3.39 billion, according to the General Statistics Office.

Specifically, the electronics industry grossed export turnover of US$24.9 billion, accounting for 33.75% of Vietnam’s total export turnover. It also witnessed import turnover of US$17.8 billion, occupying 25.3% of the country’s total import turnover.

Thus the industry earned a trade surplus of US$7.1 billion in this year’s first four months, far higher than the entire economy’s total trade surplus of US$43.9 billion.

One of the key firms that contributed the most to the bright performance of the electronics industry is Samsung, which occupies the majority of the industry’s export turnover, and also accounted for over 25% of Vietnam’s total export turnover last year.

In March, Samsung focused on boosting its Galaxy S9 and S9+ mobile phones. Last year, the firm earned total export turnover of US$54.4 billion, and the figure is expected to be higher this year.

Samsung has been boosting the production of its electronics and smartphones. It has eight production plants in the northern provinces of Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen, as well as Ho Chi Minh City. In addition, the group also has one research and development centre in Hanoi. The total investment capital of Samsung in Vietnam has mounted to more than US$17.3 billion. It is now also employing over 170,000 people.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the economy’s four-month highest trade surplus of US$3.39 billion followed the continuous trade surpluses of January (US$180 million), February (US$900 million), March (US$2.26 billion), and April (US$700 million).

Such a four-month trade surplus also followed that of the year’s first two months (US$1.08 billion), and the year’s first quarter (US$1.3 billion).

In this year’s first four months, the export turnover totalled an estimated US$73.76 billion, up 19% annually. In which, US$20.8 billion came from domestic firms, up 17.9% , and US$53.48 billion (including crude oil exports) was made by foreign firms, up 19.4%, and occupying 72.5% of the whole economy’s total export turnover.

Also in this year’s first four months, enterprises in Vietnam spent US$70.37 billion importing products, up 10.1% annually. Of which, the import turnover of Vietnamese firms reached US$28.06 billion, up 11.2%, and that of foreign firms hit US$42.31 billion, up 9.3%.