According to preliminary statistics from General Department of Customs, in the first 5 months of 2024, Vietnam spent 1 billion USD to import goods from Russia, an increase of 58% over the same period last year.
Items with the largest growth momentum include fertilizers, which increased by 372% in turnover compared to the same period last year, from 32 million USD to 152 million USD in the first 5 months of 2024. Amount of imported fertilizers also increased from 60,617 tonnes to 335,581 tonnes, equivalent to 5.5 times.
Other base metals are the item with the second largest growth in turnover with +100% over the same period last year, reaching 18 million USD. The import volume of other base metals is also 2 times higher, reaching 7,158 tonnes.
Following are auto parts and components, increasing by 89% over the same period last year, reaching 8.7 million USD; chemicals increased by 71% over the same period last year, reaching 37.7 million USD... In the first 5 months of 2024, Vietnam spent 13.9 million USD to import wheat from this market, the same period last year did not record data.
Notably, the largest import item from Russia is coal, also increased by 96% in volume, reaching 2.4 million tonnes; thereby bringing the coal import turnover to 471 million USD, up 58% over the same period last year. Currently, Russia is one of the 7 main markets supplying imported coal to Vietnam. In the first 5 months of 2024, the total amount of coal imported from Russia accounted for nearly 9% of Vietnam's total coal imports.
On the contrary, seafood imported from Russia decreased by 10% over the same period last year, to 47 million USD; rubber decreased by 28.4% over the same period last year, reaching 9.8 million USD; pharmaceuticals decreased by 12.3% compared to the same period last year, reaching 13.5 million USD...
Some items with small turnover but with a deep decrease are: Iron and steel decreased by 91% compared to the same period last year, electric wires and cables decreased by 77% compared to the same period last year, automobiles decreased by 45% compared to the same period last year...
In terms of turnover, in addition to coal and fertilizers, which are the two largest imported items from Russia, Vietnam also spent 51 million USD to import plastic raw materials, up 19.6% compared to the same period last year; imported wood and wood products with 15.8 million USD, up 27% compared to the same period last year; imported iron and steel products with 14.9 million USD, down 13% compared to the same period last year...

Source: Vitic/ congthuong.vn