Illustrative image (Source: VNA)

Vietnam’s exports to Singapore last month increased 7.69% to 603.3 million SGD while its imports went up 3.27% to over 1.93 billion SGD.

In the first quarter, bilateral trade surpassed 7.71 billion SGD, up 4.21% from the same period last year. Vietnam recorded over 1.83 billion SGD in exports to and nearly 5.89 billion SGD in imports from Singapore, respectively growing 15.22% and 1.2%.

With this result, Vietnam remains the 10th largest trading partner of Singapore, the Trade Office said.

Among the three groups of Vietnam’s key exports, only machinery and equipment, mobile phones and components, and spare parts posted growth, at 25.14%. The two remainders witnessed revenue declines, namely reactors, boilers, machine tools, and spare parts of those machines (down 8.25%), along with petrol, oil, and petroleum products (down 18.79%).

Some commodities enjoyed export surges such as animal and plant oil and fat (up nearly 500-fold), rice and cereal (up nearly two-fold), and steel (up over 1.8-fold). Others saw plunges in shipments to Singapore, including salt, sulfur, earth and stone, plaster, lime and cement (down 33.64%), together with timber and wood products (down 35.65%).

Regarding imports from Singapore, 12 of 21 groups of commodities experienced import decreases, including reactors, boilers, machine tools, and spare parts of those machines (down 46%).

The import value of Singapore’s machinery, equipment, mobile phones, components, and spare parts rose 4.84% while petrol, oil and petroleum grew 46.72%. Imports of others also increased sharply such as zinc and zinc products (up 4.18-fold), and pearl, gemstone and jewellery (up 16-fold), statistics showed.