Vietnam’s industrial production is expected to improve in the second
quarter of this year as many domestic enterprises step up raw material
imports for production, said Nguyen Tien Vy, an official from the
Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).
The planning
department director told a meeting in Hanoi on April 1 that
inventory levels in the steel industry have fallen sharply and hovered
at about 280,000 tonnes. He said many garment and textile enterprises
have already received stable orders for the second quarter and are
negotiating for the third.
In the first quarter, the index
of industrial production (IIP) reached a low level of 4.9 percent,
compared with 5.9 percent in the correspondent period last year.
Vy said inventories began to increase in March, adding that the rate for
manufacturing and processing industries was 16.5 percent higher than
those of the same period 2012.
Sectors with high
inventories included electricity cable (62 percent), metal components
(35.5 percent), motor vehicles (37.3 percent), concrete, cement and
plaster (28 percent), and chemicals (27.4 percent).
He
attributed the reduction of industrial production to the 9-day-long Tet
(Lunar New Year) holiday and to economic difficulties.
Vietnam is expected to have a trade surplus of 482 million USD in the
first quarter of this year with a total export turnover of 29.68 billion
USD, a year-on-year rise of 19.7 percent.
Ministry statistics
showed that the surplus will mainly come from the foreign direct
investment (FDI) sector. The domestic sector saw imports exceed exports
by more than 2.6 billion USD while FDI businesses had a trade surplus of
3.1 billion USD.
MoIT Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Khanh
said the FDI sector helped the export value of mobile phones and
components hit 4.48 billion USD, and electronic products, 2.42 billion
USD.
However, the nation’s key export products slowed, with rice
export value falling by 3.1 percent and fishery products down 5.5
percent.
A rice reserve of 1 million tonnes helped push up the
rice price by 100-300 VND per kilogramme, said Nguyen Minh Toai,
director of the Department of Industry and Trade of the Mekong Delta
city of Can Tho .
But many enterprises did not buy rice
directly from farmers and profits mostly fell into the hands of
intermediaries, he said, urging an increase in the floor rice price to
be considered carefully to improve farmer’s incomes.
MoIT
Minister Vu Huy Hoang said the ministry will further assist enterprises
with capital, administrative procedures and markets to help them
overcome the hard time.
“The ministry will keep a close watch on
market changes so that it can advise enterprises when to limit business
risks,” he said. “We will also take necessary steps to assure goods
reserves to prevent falls in export prices.”
Hoang urged organisations to strengthen promotional activities to boost consumption and reduce inventories.
“Drastic measures must be taken during the remainder of the year so
that the year’s target can be fulfilled, especially when the nation’s
major export markets, including the US, the European Union and Japan
haven’t shown any clear signs of recovery,” said Khanh.
According
to economic expert Nguyen Minh Phong, domestic enterprises should
enhance their competitiveness, especially raising the added value of
their products.-VNA