Trade activities of our country in November continued to recover strongly with an estimated turnover of 599 billion USD, up 22.3% over the same period in 2020.
After declining in the third quarter due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, our country’s trade activity since the beginning of the fourth quarter has recovered strongly when the whole country entered the new normal phase with the target of medium and low consumption. effectively fight the epidemic, while restoring and promoting socio-economic development.

According to estimates by the General Statistics Office, the export turnover of the country in November continued to increase for the second consecutive month and reached a record high of 30 billion USD, up 3.6% over the previous month and up 18.5% over the same period last year.

Similarly, import turnover also recorded the highest level ever with USD 29.8 billion, up 14% from the previous month and up 21% over the same period last year.

Vietnam’s export turnover through the months of 2020-2021 (Unit: million USD)

Data from the General Statistics Office and the General Department of Customs. (Chart: Hoang Hiep)

In general, in the first 11 months of 2021, despite being negatively affected by the 4th outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, the total import and export turnover still increased sharply by 22.3% compared to the same period in 2020, estimated at 599. billion USD.

In which, export turnover increased by 17.5%, reaching 299.7 billion USD. In the opposite direction, import turnover increased at a stronger rate when it increased by 27.5% in 11 months, reaching $299.4 billion.

In November alone, export turnover of items belonging to the group of mineral fuels and metals continued to be the items with the highest growth. Specifically, crude oil increased by 209.6 percent over the same period last year, iron and steel increased by 113%, clinker and cement increased by 90.8%, gasoline increased by 66.2%…

In addition, the export turnover of a number of agricultural products also recorded high growth such as: Rice up 57.4%, pepper up 27.3%, cassava and cassava products up 25.2%, seeds cashews up 15%, coffee up 12.6%…

Notably, seafood export turnover is also showing a strong recovery with an increase of 18.8% in November over the same period; similarly, textiles increased 24.9%.

However, some categories such as shoes, bags, wallets, suitcases, hats, umbrellas, wood and wood products, although recovered compared to previous months, still could not balance the turnover compared to the same period last year. last year.

However, thanks to the high growth rate achieved since the beginning of the year, in general, the export turnover of most of the product lines has grown positively compared to the same period last year.

In the first 11 months of 2021, there are 34 items with export turnover of over 1 billion USD, accounting for 93.5% of total export turnover (there are 7 export products with over 10 billion USD, accounting for 66.4%).

Regarding the commodity export market in the first 11 months of 2021, the US is the largest export market of Vietnam with a turnover of 84.8 billion USD, up 22.2% over the same period last year. Next is China with 50.5 billion USD, up 16.8%.

Regarding the structure of imported goods in the first 11 months of 2021, the capital goods group was estimated at 280.2 billion USD, up 27.9% over the same period last year and accounting for 93.6% of the total import turnover of goods. chemical. The consumer goods group was estimated at 19.25 billion USD, up 22.2% and accounting for 6.4%.

China is Vietnam’s largest import market with a turnover of 98.5 billion USD, up 32% over the same period last year. Followed by the Korean market reached 50.3 billion USD, up 20.3%.

The trade balance of goods in November was estimated to have a trade surplus of 100 million USD, bringing the trade balance in 11 months to a surplus of 225 million USD. Although the trade surplus was much lower than the 20.2 billion USD figure in the same period last year, it improved significantly compared to the deficit of nearly 2.6 billion USD two months ago.

According to the explanation of the management agencies, Vietnam’s trade surplus in the first 11 months of 2021 is lower than the same period last year due to the high world commodity prices, so the import price of input materials for production increases.

At the same time, the complicated development of the COVID-19 epidemic has caused a sharp increase in international freight rates. While the import value includes transportation costs, the export value usually records the FOB price. Therefore, the sharp increase in freight charges has made the import value increase more than the export value.

Vietnam’s trade balance through the months of 2020 – 2021 (Unit: million USD)