(VOVWORLD) - Vietnam’s wood export is likely to hit about 14.5 billion USD this year, lower than the yearly target of 17 billion USD, Vice Chairman of the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of Ho Chi Minh City (HAWA) Nguyen Chanh Phuong told a local press conference on Wednesday.
Between now and the year’s end, the figure could reach roughly 6 billion USD.
Since early this year, the export of wood and wooden furniture has been dull, with a shortage of orders common in most businesses. In the past eight months, the export turnover neared 8.3 billion USD, down around 26% annually, Phuong said.
Since this May, the Vietnamese firms have been importing a significant amount of raw wood materials which rise by 5-10% per month. This is a sign that they are actively preparing for end-of-year orders, he added.
Citing data from the International Trade Centre (ITC), Phuong revealed that the Vietnamese wood enterprises are also importing a substantial amount of machinery and equipment, totaling approximately 240 million USD, mostly from China, Europe, the South Korea and Japan, among others.