Trade Surplus in the Wood Industry Exceeds 780 Million USD
On August 9, 2024, speaking at the "Industry Meeting on Processing, wood export and forest products in the third quarter of 2024”, Mr. Trieu Van Luc - Deputy Director of the Forest Management Department (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development - MARD) stated: In the first 7 months of 2024, the value of wood and forest product exports is estimated to reach 9.361 billion USD, up 20.5% from the same period last year. On the other hand, the value of wood and wood product imports in the first 7 months is estimated to reach 1.5 billion USD, up 22.3% from 2023.
“With the above results, the trade surplus of the entire industry after 7 months is estimated to reach 7.86 billion USD” - Mr. Luc said.
In the first 7 months of 2024, wood export and wood products to the US increased by 24%, reaching 5.019 billion USD; China: Increased by 37.92%, reaching 1.22 billion USD; the EU (EU): Increased by 22.44%, reaching 555 million USD.
However, wood and wood product exports to the Japanese and Korean markets decreased (Japan decreased by 2.73%, South Korea decreased by 1%).
Forecasting wood exports face difficulties, need solutions to resolve
Sharing at the workshop, businesspeople also stated that wood and wood product exports face many difficulties due to the fact that the global economy still faces many challenges: The war between Russia and Ukraine, drought on the Panama Canal, crisis on the Red Sea… In addition, the forecast for global economic growth is 2.6%, lower than the 3.1% growth rate of 2023.
The above factors will certainly have a significant impact on the trade of the wood industry.
Especially, according to Mr. Do Xuan Lap - Chairman of the Vietnam Timber and Forest Products Association (VIFOREST), Vietnamese businesses exporting goods to the US will continue to be discriminated against in anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations by this country, the actual production costs of Vietnamese businesses will continue to be unrecognized and will have to use "substituted values" of a third country to calculate the dumping margin.
“The lawsuits can continue to increase in the coming time, when the US economy and the world are experiencing crises, the US manufacturing industry is facing difficulties” - Mr. Do Xuan Lap stated.
Regarding the solutions of the wood industry in the coming time, Mr. Do Xuan Lap stated that it is necessary to improve the competitive capacity of businesses. In which, it is necessary to focus on 5 main contents: Technical and technological solutions in production; Production must reduce emissions (green products); management solutions, in which the top priority is digital transformation (apply software in management); promote trade promotion (set the development of markets as the top priority in the current time); build internal monitoring standards in enterprises.
VIFOREST requested the ministries of MARD, Ministry of Industry and Trade, and relevant agencies of the Government to support and guide businesses to respond to anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations by the US. At the same time, it is necessary to have a coordination mechanism to update information on policy changes in key export markets of the Vietnamese wood industry and provide forecasts, warnings, and related information on trade defense.
Accordingly, functional agencies will develop policies to support trade promotion activities for the wood industry, to help businesses have more opportunities to introduce and promote the image of Vietnamese wood to export markets. VIFOREST also requested the Ministry of Planning and Investment to have policies to discourage foreign investors from investing in wood product production projects in provinces where the investor's country has been subject to anti-dumping duties.
