Vietnam enjoys US$3.52 billion trade surplus despite Galaxy Note 7 recall
Despite the fact that the recall of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 has negatively affected Vietnam’s exports in this commodity group, the country still enjoyed a US$3.52 billion trade surplus during the first ten months of this year, the General Statistics Office has said.
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Accordingly, export turnover is estimated at over US$144 billion, up 7.2% compared to the same period of last year, of which exports in the domestic sector have reached US$41.4 billion, an increase of 4.9%, while the FDI sector’s exports (including crude oil) are at US$102.7 billion, up 8.1%.
The US is still the largest export market for Vietnam, with US$31.8 billion, up 15% compared to the same period of 2015. The runners-up are the EU (US$27.3 billion, up 7.4%); China (US$17.3 billion, up 23.9%); Japan (US$12 billion, up 3.4%); and the Republic of Korea (US$9.5 billion, up 29.1%).
For ASEAN alone, Vietnam’s exports have reached US$14.2 billion, down 7.6%.
China continues to be the largest import market for Vietnam, with imports valued at US$40.3 billion, down 1.2% against the same period of last year; followed by the Republic of Korea at US$25.8 billion, up 10.8%; ASEAN US$19.1 billion, down 2.8%; Japan US$12.2 billion, up 1.7%; EU US$9.1 billion, up 6.4%; and the US at US$6.7 billion, up 0.6%.
In September, problems with the batteries of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 led to a recall and halt on exports of the smartphone, causing export turnovers for phones and phone components (of which Samsung accounts for a major proportion) to be forecast to decline.
In fact, the Galaxy Note 7 incident affected the operations of Samsung Vietnam and made the company suffer from reductions in profit, but did not significantly impact exports in this commodity group.
The reason for this is that part of the stock of the Note 7 was distributed on the domestic market, while exports of this product currently account for a small portion of total exports.
At the same time, Samsung Vietnam has boosted exports of other products to compensate the drop in exports of Galaxy Note 7.
It is forecast that the troubled Galaxy Note 7 recall will have a direct impact on overall exports, but the extent of this impact will not be large. The problem might also indirectly affect consumption and exports of other Samsung products.
