The opening four months of the year have seen the nation’s total import turnover rise to over US$78 billion, a drop of 0.3%, with China maintaining its place as the country’s largest import market, according to figures released by the General Department of Customs.

Elsewhere, in terms of turnover scale, Asia represents the largest trading market for the nation. 

Throughout the reviewed period Vietnamese trade with the Asian market reached US$103.61 billion. Despite suffering a slight annual decrease of 0.4%, the continent accounted for 65.2% of overall import and export turnover for the country.

Most notably, although declines occurred in the majority of major markets, Asia still maintains 80.1% of the nation’s total import turnover.

With a general decline occurring across the board, several import groups recorded slow or negative growth.

The only commodity group to enjoy increases over the four-month period were computers along with electronic products and components. Indeed, these items represent the nation’s largest import group of the reviewed period.

Since the start of the year, imports of computers, electronic products and components reached approximately US$17.6 billion, representing a 11.5% increase on-year.

In particular, FDI enterprises spent a total of US$14.7 billion during the period, equivalent to 84% of the total import value of computers, electronic products and components, an increase of 11.7% from last year.

The Republic of Korea remains the largest consumer of Vietnamese computers, electronic products and components with a value of US$5.44 billion, a drop of 6.1%, followed by China, Taiwan (China), and the United States.

Other import items which recorded remarkable growth include crude oil, in addition to telephones and components.

Despite a number of items recording growth, the General Department of Customs noted that several key import groups endured a decrease in turnover of up to hundreds of millions of dollars during the reviewed period.

The commodity group that suffered the largest fall in turnover was petroleum, with a total import volume of 2.4 million tonnes over the four-month period, a sharp decline of 41.7%, equivalent to US$800 million, in comparison with last year’s same period.

Completely built-up automobiles, along with iron and steel, also recorded sharp drops, with falls of US$430 million and US$290 million, respectively.

Indeed, the commodity groups which suffered the biggest drops in import turnover are those that make major contributions to the customs sector’s revenue.