china import vietnam

8dec1 saigon times weekly

Ho Quoc Phi, Vietnamese trade counselor in Beijing, advises what Vietnamese businesses should export to China
By Vu Thu
China needs a wide range of Vietnamese goods. Following are the common commodities:
Crude oil: Crude oil can fetch higher prices in China as the transport cost can be reduced. Demand for oil import from Vietnam is unlimited, which can reach as high as 10 million tons a year.
Natural rubber: China needed 1.5 million tons of rubber in 2000, of which 0.6-0.7 million tons was met by domestic supply. Its rubber demand increases 10-15% annually.
Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan are main suppliers of natural and synthetic rubber for China. Thailand supplies 580,000 tons annually, Taiwan 400,000 tons, mainly synthetic rubber, Malaysia 150,000 tons and Vietnam 70,000 tons. According to Vietnamese customs, Vietnam exports 100,000 tons to China. Vietnam General Rubber Company says China is always Vietnam's prime rubber market, accounting for 50% of production and 65% of export volume. However, low quality may be the reason for Vietnamese rubber's humble market in China. Vietnamese rubber is produced mainly by the SVR, the standard of the former Soviet Union, while Thai, Malaysian and Taiwanese rubber follows the U.S. standard ISS.
Vietnamese rubber has higher prices than those produced in regional countries because it enjoys a 50% reduction of import tax and value-added tax for trade via borders.
Vegetables and fruit: Vietnam exports a large quantity of vegetables and fruit to China and the products are available in most major Chinese cities.
However, China can now grow most of the tropical fruit and vegetables that Vietnam enjoys monopoly such as longans, litchis, dragon fruit, bananas and water melons. Chinese scientists are able to hybridize off-season fruit. This may pose a problem for Vietnamese fruit and vegetable export in the future.
Aqua products: These are favorite products in China where quarantine and inspection are not so strict. It should be noted that although Chinese customs have announced a rapid increase in aqua product export turnover, estimated at US$2.3 billion in 2000, the import turnover is nearly unavailable. The import turnover from Vietnam is put at zero.
Agro-products: China is a competitor with Vietnam in agro-product export. However, some Vietnamese agro-products can still find their ways to China.
- Cashew nuts: China is Vietnam's main market for cashew nuts, but recently Indian cashew nuts have also been exported to this market.
- Rice: Vietnam can take the opportunity to sell rice to the southern and southwestern regions of China because China has cut the farming acreage and suffered crop losses continuously. Vietnam should persuade China to substitute Vietnamese rice in its rice purchasing contracts or rice aid projects. China currently imports 200,000 tons of fragrant rice from Thailand.
Recently, China has also bought Vietnamese sugar, coffee and pepper.
Coal: China is a large coal exporter but it also imports coal from Vietnam because its coal mines are located mainly in the northeastern region; therefore coal transport to the south is costly and it is more economical to buy Vietnamese coal.
Some Vietnamese industrial products such as picture tubes, detergent, perfume, confectionery and footwear are also accepted by Chinese consumers. China has high demand for wooden furniture, especially wooden antique imitations.

China's imports from Vietnam
(Unit: US$ million)
 

Commodity	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000
Steel	7.107	6.518	6.287	7.008	8.536
Chemical fertilizer	3.563	2.995	2.506	2.248	1.730
Electro-mechanical products	61.351	59.344	64.010	77.601	102.871
Machine tools	2.522	1.586	1.391	1.506	1.890
Crude oil	3.407	5.456	3.275	4.641	14.861
Sewing machines	2.127	2.576	2.603	2.317	1.629
Oil products	2.385	3.682	2.407	2.698	3.657
Cereals	2.575	916	716	524	594
Plastic grain	1.582	1.769	1.628	1.632	2.599
Cardboard	2.328	2.825	3.023	3.368	3.296
Iron deposits	1.321	1.615	1.468	1.379	1.857
Vegetable oil	1.493	1.505	1.299	1.074	627

(Source: Vietnamese trade counselor in China)