Export situation of phones and electronic components in the first 5 months of 2021

The import and export activities of goods in May 2021 were strongly affected by the fourth wave of the Covid-19 epidemic that broke out in the country, causing the production activities of some enterprises in industrial parks of some provinces to be affected. Export turnover of goods is estimated to decrease compared to the previous month and Vietnam has a trade deficit for the second consecutive month.

According to a report by the General Statistics Office, it is estimated that in May 2021, the export turnover of goods reaches 26 billion USD, down 2.1% compared to April 2021. Most of the products in the group of six key commodities with export turnover of more than 1 billion USD decreased or increased slightly compared to the previous month, including Phones and components down 3%; electronics, computers, and components down 5%; machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts reduced by 18%; textiles increased by 3.7%; wood and wood products increased by 0.1%.

Generally, in the first 5 months of 2021, the total import and export value of Vietnam's goods was expected to reach USD 261.75 billion, a sharp increase of 33.2% over the same period in 2020; the total export value was estimated at 130.94 billion USD, up 30.7%. In which, the export of all kinds of phones and components in May 2021 was estimated at 3.7 billion USD, down 3% compared to the previous month. According to calculations, by the end of 5 months, the country's export of all kinds of phones and components reached 21.9 billion USD, accounting for 16.7% of total export turnover, up 19.6% over the same period in 2020.

Phones of all kinds and components are items accounting for an increasing proportion of total export turnover, the growth of phones and components has a great influence on the overall export growth of the country. In 2010, the export of phones and components only accounted for 3.2% of the total export turnover, by 2015 it accounted for 18.7%, 5.8 times higher than the proportion in 2010 and always maintained at above less than 20% since then (19.5% in 2016; 21.2% in 2017; 20.3% in 2018; 19.4% in 2019 and 18.1% in 2020). Exporting phones and components leading in six commodity groups with a turnover of over 10 billion USD of Vietnam are: Phones and components; electronics, computers, and components; textile; machinery, equipment, tools, and spare parts; footwear; wood and wood products.

Table 1. Export turnover of phones and components over the years

Unit: Billion USD

Source:The General Statistics Office

Export turnover of all kinds of phones and components since 2010 only reached 2.3 billion USD. But after 5 years to 2015, the export value of phones of all kinds and components reached 30.2 billion USD, corresponding to a growth of 1304%, which is an extremely impressive growth after 5 years. From 2015 to 2016, the export value of phones of all kinds and components reached 34.5 billion USD, up 14.2%. In 2017, the export value of phones of all kinds and components reached USD 45.6 billion, up 32.1%. In 2019, the export value of phones of all kinds and components reached USD 51.4 billion, up 3.8%. In 2020, the export value of phones and components reached 51.2 billion USD. In 2021, the total export value of phones and components in the first 5 months of the year reached 14.9 billion USD. The major export markets of this group of goods are still the EU, the United States, and China.

Table 2. Export chart of mobile phones and components over the years

Unit: Billion USD

Source:The General Statistics Office

Factors that greatly affect the export of phones of all kinds and components in the period from 2018 to 2021. The trade war between the United States and China began on March 22, 2018, when US President Donald Trump announced that he would impose tariffs of US$50 billion on Chinese goods under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. The manufacturing industry Electronics and telephones have many opportunities from the wave of investment from large technology corporations moving to Vietnam. Currently, Samsung is the largest electronics and phone company in our country. Samsung's global revenue and output dropped sharply in 2020 and is expected to continue to decline in 2021 due to the negative impact of the Covid-19 epidemic on the world economy, including the electronics industry. However, Vietnam's electronics and phone manufacturing industry still maintains stability and gradually recovers. These are good signs, predicting a year of strong growth for the electronics industry and making great contributions to the recovery process, and achieving Vietnam's growth target in 2021.

In the past few years, electronics have become an important industry of the economy, so many economic experts believe that it is necessary to have a long-term development plan with attention to investment, considering investment support for enterprises; support for the research, production, and testing of products and trade promotion programs; review and finalize legal policies, especially specific regulations on goods of Vietnamese origin; implement solutions to expand domestic and export markets. Specifically, experts proposed a number of solutions to promote the export of phones and electronic components in the context of Covid in the first months of 2021 and this will continue to be the basis for export development of these items in the next years.

On the side of state management agencies, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will continue to implement solutions to promote exports, including exploiting and taking advantage of opportunities from Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) to find solutions to develop markets and remove barriers to enter new markets; continue to closely monitor the developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in the world to take timely response measures; consolidate and expand export markets, taking full advantage of the FTAs that have taken effect; diversifying export markets for key products such as phones and electronic components.

On the business side, proactive adaptation is the best measure, the 4th Covid-19 epidemic broke out and became increasingly complicated in many localities, especially some key provinces and cities in the Northern region such as Bac Giang, Bac Ninh, Hanoi...Especially, the wave of infection in industrial zones has not stopped increasing. Enterprises are proactive with epidemic prevention programs at the highest level, storing information, making medical declarations for all employees and guests. The enterprise has also fully equipped employees with the necessary equipment to prevent epidemics such as antiseptic alcohol, Chloramine B, masks, etc. Strengthening communication on disease prevention on all possible means. Accordingly, enterprises seriously implement such steps as checking, tracing, zoning workers who have contact or near radius of F0, F1 infections and thoroughly, resolutely, require F2 isolation, and even F3 at home. Along with that, there are measures such as disinfecting, measuring temperature, fully implementing 5K for workers from the entrance, preventing the source of infection...

Thus, to promote the export of phones and electronic components in the context of Covid in the first months of 2021, Vietnam needs the coordination of both businesses and the government's management to achieve the dual goal, which is both economic development and effective anti-epidemic.

Luong Thanh Hai

Department of Information, Library, and Trade Promotion - VIOIT