Many businesses in the sector have already secured export orders, mostly small, for the first quarter (Q1) of next year when the shopping season in Vietnam’s key export markets such as the EU and US begins.

Tran Hoai Huu, director of Gia Nhien Co., Ltd. based in Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Thanh district, said. "We have successfully finalised export orders serving the year-end festive occasions and in November, we began receiving orders for Q1 next year."

According to Tran Quoc Manh, chairman of Saigon Trade and Production Development Corporation (Sadaco), like many firms, Sadaco was expecting a sharp decline in its order intake and revenue this year.

The company, however, saw a rebound and many workshops have resumed production at 60-80 per cent of their capacity, which has been a positive signal on the threshold of the new year.

To Dang Trung, director of Cung Viet Co., Ltd. (Curvetta) based in the southern province of Binh Duong, however, assumed that exports of wood and wooden furniture would see a rebound, even though the process has been rather slow, and furniture is being sold at low prices.

“Luckily, material costs went down slightly in the later months of the year, so that Curvetta, as well as other firms in the sector, have hopefully been able to maintain profit levels as they have been in previous years,” said Trung.

“Our firm finalised presenting new products to customers in the UK and Spain several months ago. The success of orders comes to about 80 per cent or more. We expect about a 40-50 per cent jump in the number of export orders in Q1 of 2024, compared to the same period last year,” Trung added.

Exports have seen an improvement by leveraging certain support factors such as increased trade promotion and a better-than-expected recovery of the global economy.

The pace of the rebound, however, is slow, and the situation is forecast to remain so for the foreseeable future. This has meant businesses in the sector have put their pricing policies at the top of their agendas.

“Price is decisive in securing export orders,” said Huu from Gia Nhien, adding, "We offer loyal customers competitive price schemes, whereas new customers are offered these discounts depending on the order value."

Similarly, Trung from Curvetta, said, "We offer a 20 per cent discount to customers buying from 10 containers full of products, and a 35 per cent discount for those buying from between 40–50 containers."