Electronics accounted for 28.9 percent of total export turnover in 2017

Electronics a key export item

The export turnover of electronics and household use electrical appliances accounted for 28.9 percent of total export turnover. Mobile phones & components, cameras and components and other kinds of machines and accessories brought revenue of $61.8 billion, an increase of $14.45 billion in comparison with the year before.

The smartphone boom

Smartphone use has been growing rapidly over the last 10 years, thanks to many useful features.

In 2017, Vietnam’s phone and phone accessories exports brought revenue of $45.27 billion, up by 31.9 percent over 2016. This included 184.4 million mobile phones which went mostly to Russia, Germany, Austria, Indonesia and the US.

The import turnover of electronics and household use electrical appliances amounted to 25.5 percent of total import turnover.

The import value of these items (mobile phones and accessories, camera and accessories, household electrical appliances and parts, machinery and equipment accessories) reached $53.9 billion, or $12 billion higher than 2016.

The imports mostly came from Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The strong rise of CCTV cameras

In 2017, Vietnam imported 181.5 million cameras worth $1.17 million. Of this, 80 percent were imported from China, 17.5 percent South Korea and 1.1 percent from the Philippines. 

The imports included cameras for mobile phone assembling and CCTV cameras.

2017 witnessed fierce competition in the CCTV industry in Vietnam. Currently, there are three groups of CCTV product lines available in the market: Vietnam-made products from imported components; CBU imports from China, Taiwan; and CBU imports from South Korea and Japan.

FIEs make up 95 percent of export turnover

Since 2015, Vietnam has been in the 12th position in the world and third in South East Asia in electronic exports. 

However, analysts pointed out that 95 percent of export turnover goes to foreign invested enterprises (FIEs). Vietnamese enterprises only earn modest money from assembling and outsourcing. 

Regarding product structure, household-used electronics account for 80 percent of total output, while the remaining is specialized electronics with a localization ratio of 20-30 percent.

Most of the products available in the domestic market are CBU (complete built unit) imports or are assembled in Vietnam from imported accessories.

Import turnover reaches $53.9 billion in 2017.

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Mai Chi