The figures represent a rise of 16.7% in volume, but a fall of 6.6% in value year on year. Vietnamese rubber’s market share accounts for 18.23% of China’s total rubber imports, 0.43% higher than the figure recorded in the same period last year.
China imported 5.35 million tonnes of rubber worth US$7.98 billion, mainly natural and synthetic rubber in the eight-month period, up 13.9% in volume, but down 9.6%.
With regard to natural rubber, Vietnam was the fifth largest supplier of natural rubber to China with 124,630 tonnes worth US$135.94 million, down 14.2% in volume and 34.3% in value, with market shares making up 7.37% of total Chinese imports.
For mixed natural rubber and synthetic rubber, Vietnam was the second largest exporter of these products to this market with 846,060 tonnes worth US$1.15 billion, up 23.4% in volume but down 1.9% in value, accounting for 32.51% of total Chinese import turnover of the products.
At present, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Ivory Coast, and Russia are the five largest suppliers of rubber to China.
Ample room for Vietnam – Germany business links
There remains great potential to build stronger ties between Vietnamese and German businesses, especially in the field of renewable energy and vocational training, heard an economic and trade promotion conference held in Berlin on October 5, reported VOV News.
Addressing the event, Dr. Volker Treier, chief executive of Foreign Trade at the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), emphasized that economic and trade ties between Germany and Vietnam have yielded positive results over recent years, especially following the enforcement of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).
German businesses have created about 50,000 jobs in Vietnam, with this trend set to continue in the future.
Dr. Treier pointed out a number of potential areas of cooperation, such as renewable energy and vocational training, saying vocational training has not only attracted workers from Vietnam, but has also helped to ensure a skilled workforce that is in short supply in Germany.
For his part, Vietnamese Ambassador to Germany Vu Quang Minh noted that the strategic and trustworthy partnership between the two countries over the past 12 years has witnessed plenty of positive developments in multiple fields.
Most notably, he said German businesses operating in Vietnam also have the opportunity to reach out to partners in the region through many regional cooperation frameworks that Vietnam has signed.
With these existing advantages, the Vietnamese diplomat expressed hope that businesses of the two countries can utilise opportunities to further strengthen bilateral ties, while suggesting that both sides sign a framework agreement on labour cooperation in the near future.
Vu Ba Phu, director of the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade), stressed that Germany is Vietnam’s largest trading partner in Europe, accounting for nearly 20% of Vietnamese exports to the EU.
Germany is also an important transit gateway for the country’s exports to other markets throughout Europe.
He said Vietrade is always ready to coordinate with German authorities to implement solutions aimed at supporting businesses from both sides in strengthening connectivity and seeking partners.
At the event, Phu also proposed a number of specific measures which seek to improve the efficiency of trade promotion and investment activities of the two sides.
Vietnam sets new record in rice exports
Vietnam exported 3.66 billion USD worth of rice in the first nine months of 2023, up 40.4% from last year and surpassing the record of 3.65 billion USD set in 2011, reported Nhan Dan Online News.
It is outstanding that Vietnam earned 3.66 billion USD with just 6.6 million tonnes in 2023 while in 2011 the country previously needed to export 7.1 million tonnes to bring in 3.65 billion USD.
This is because Vietnam’s rice export prices have remained consistently high at 553 USD per tonne on average, up 14% from 2022. The prices approached 650 USD per tonne at times.
Currently Vietnam’s export prices are still topping the world while those of countries such as Thailand and Pakistan have dropped slightly.
According to the Vietnam Food Association, the income of the rice sector has improved considerably compared to previous years thanks to high prices.
Vietnam still has plenty of room to boost its rice exports as the Philippines and Indonesia are looking to import another 1.1 million tonnes and 2.3 million tonnes respectively by the end of the year.
China’s rice demand is also forecast to rise in the final months of the year.
Vietnam has over 3,000 transport and logistics firms, with scale of 40-42 billion USD
Vietnam so far has more than 3,000 transportation and logistics businesses and about 25 of the world’s leading services providers are operating in the country.
The information was released by Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Duy Dong in a logistics conference, themed “Vietnam Logistics – The Road Ahead”, held in Ho Chi Minh City, on October 5.
The event was attended by 300 delegates being leaders of state management agencies, experts, domestic and foreign business associations, logistics services providers and users and consulting units.
In his speech at the event, Deputy Minister Tran Duy Dong said that over the past years, the Vietnamese Government has actively directed the improvement of mechanisms, policies and infrastructure to develop the important field. Thanks to that, the capacity and ranking of the logistics industry are improving and tending to expand.
According to the World Bank’s ranking, Vietnam now ranks 64 out of 160 countries in terms of logistics development and ranks 4th in the ASEAN region after Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
According to Agility, one of the world’s leading logistics service providers, in 2022, Vietnam ranked 11th among the group of 50 global emerging logistics markets. The annual growth rate of Vietnam’s logistics industry reaches 14-16%, with a scale of 40-42 billion USD a year.
However, in reality, there are still some limitations and challenges for the logistics industry. Specifically, institutions and policies for the logistics field are not synchronized and are overlapping, transport and logistics infrastructure is not synchronized, and there is a lack of centralized warehouses.
“In the coming time, it is necessary to overcome the above limitations and at the same time, synchronous and effective solutions are needed to help Vietnam’s logistics industry develop even more strongly,” Mr. Tran Duy Dong stated.
According to the organizers, analysis, exchange and discussion opinions of experts, management agencies and leading businesses will contribute useful information to the research roadmap and development strategies building to develop Vietnam’s logistics services in 2025-2035, a vision to 2045, and action plans of the Government./.