Energy-saving products grow in popularity

HCM CITY — Energy-saving air-conditioners and compact-flourescent lights have become more and more popular in the HCM City market, experts have said.

At the beginning of the year, local and international producers, including Panasonic, Sanyo, Samsung and Hitachi, launched inverter-technology products that save up to 20-60 per cent of electricity consumption.

From January to August, 546,654 air conditioners with a capacity of up to 15,000BTU have been sold in HCM City. Of those, 35-50 per cent used inverter technology, according to figures compiled from electronic-goods shops.

At the HCM City-based Wonder Buy electronic-goods centre, 35 per cent of all air conditioners sold were of the inverter type, while at Best Carings 60 per cent of air-conditioner sales had inverter technology.

Like energy-savings air conditioners, compact-fluorescent lights that can help save power are also popular in the market.

Compact-fluorescent light bulbs, which can cut energy use from 40W to 38W, are widely on sale.

Customers are now becoming familiar with the use of compact-flourescent lights instead of the more common incandescent bulbs.

Five years ago, Dutch-based Philips Viet Nam introduced compact-flourescent lights to the market. Most of them can save at least 10 per cent of electricity consumption.

Recently, the Dien Quang Company has also focused on making compact lights that can help save power.

Nguyen Thanh Toan of HCM City Power Saving Centre said total energy savings would depend on the customers' use and other factors.

Toan said that, for instance, an air conditioner works of 9,000BTU capacity and power consumption of 750W per hour could save up to 30 per cent of electricity consumption.

Toan also said that some air conditioners could save up to 60 per cent of electricity consumption.

The owner of the Cong Danh air-conditioner shop in Go Vap District said the price of an air conditioner with converter technology is about VND2 million – VND3 million (US$100) higher than other air-conditioners.

But savings over the long run would compensate for the higher initial price, he added.

The price of compact fluorescent lights is not expensive, but it has high quality and is popular with customers, according to the owner of Huynh Nga electronic shop in the city's Thu Duc District. — VNS

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Export staples join $1b club

HA NOI — With export turnover of more than US$1 billion each by September this year, coal, rubber and steel joined the country's $1 billion club, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

The new additions lifted the number of the country's export staples with turnover of more than $1 billion to 13. The others include garments, footwear, crude oil, seafood, gemstones, wooden products, electrical goods, computers, machinery and vehicles.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Thanh Bien said the increasing cost of many export staples helped raise the country's total export turnover in the first nine months of the year to $51.5 billion, up 23.2 per cent year-on-year.

During the period, around 48 per cent of Viet Nam's exports went to the Asian market, followed by America with 23 per cent and Europe with 22 per cent.

Bien attributed the export growth to the State Bank of Viet Nam's decision to lift the inter-bank rate by 2.1 per cent in August as part of the effort to boost exports and curb the trade deficit.

Industry insiders forecast the trade sector would meet the Government's export target of $61 billion this year, given a number of key export industries including apparel still had fresh orders coming in.

To meet the target, the Ministry of Planning and Investment has asked customs officials to scrutinise current procedures to ease the import of materials for export production.

Besides capitalising on advantages created by Free Trade Agreements, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has also boosted other bilateral and multilateral negotiations to help exporters enlarge their markets. — VNS

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Supporting industry and Metalex expos open in HCMC

Visitors view products at the supporting industry expo, which is organized concurrently with Metalex Vietnam on machine tools and metalworking technologies in District 7 - Photo: Quoc Hung

HCMC – An exhibition on supporting industries and an international machine tools and metalworking technology exhibition known as Metalex Vietnam opened on Thursday at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center in District 7.

The supporting industry expo is co-organized by the HCMC Investment and Trade Promotion Center and Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) in the city, while Reed Tradex is the organizer of Metalex Vietnam.

While the supporting industry expo features Japanese manufacturers displaying parts, equipment, or supporting services, and Vietnamese suppliers who are part and equipment makers and subcontractors, Metalex Vietnam highlights latest machine tools and metalworking technologies.

Metalex Vietnam has a “Hi-Tech Zone” where modern machinery and technology are displayed, and “Robot Demonstration,” which unveils extraordinary capacity of “Motoman,” an intelligent industrial robot which can cut and weld metal with laser in fluid and precise movements.

Meanwhile, over 100 local suppliers and Japanese manufacturers mainly in the automobile, motorcycle and electronics parts manufacturing industries are looking for business opportunities at the supporting industry expo. Half of them are Japanese companies in Vietnam and directly from Japan, while the other half are local joint ventures.

This expo “aims to develop supporting industries in Vietnam as part of cooperation projects based on the Japan-Vietnam Economic Partnership Agreement signed in 2008,” said Tetsusaburo Hayashi, executive vice president of JETRO.

“One of the main problems for these firms is the difficulty in procuring parts. According to a JETRO survey, Vietnam ranks lower than its ASEAN neighbors in terms of local content rates for Japanese-affiliated firms in these countries,” he said, adding this issue affects not only the competitiveness of firms operating locally, but also Vietnam’s international competitiveness.

Duangdej Yaikwarmdee, deputy managing director of Reed Tradex, said, “The combination of two expos will create an all-under-one-roof meeting center for the manufacturing community. Buyers and sellers would meet, exchange knowledge and ideas, discover technologies, and develop business networks.”

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Furniture exports to China rise sharply

HCMC - Vietnam’s high quality furniture shipments to China have increased rapidly since early this year, said a source from the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of HCMC (HAWA).  

“China is exporting mass-produced furniture made of artificial materials but importing quality furniture from Vietnam, especially products made of precious timber such as redwood,” said Dang Quoc Hung, vice chairman of HAWA.

According to the  Vietnam Industry and Information Center under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in the first eight months of this year, Vietnam’s wooden product exports to China grew 130% year-on-year to US$230 million.  

Thus China is becoming a big importer of Vietnam’s furniture, after the U.S., the EU and Japan which respectively imported US$889 million, US$387 million and US$271 million in January-August, Hung told reporters at the ongoing International Furniture and Handicraft Fair and Exhibition in HCMC, or Expo 2010.

Hung explained that while China is known as the world’s factory, it is also a huge market with increasing demand due to rising incomes and an emerging middle class.  

“If China keeps growing well, it will be the potential market for Vietnam’s wooden product makers. Vietnamese businesses should explore the tastes of Chinese consumers,” the vice chairman said, adding the rising yuan is expected to benefit Vietnamese exporters.  

According to Hung, the volume of furniture orders this year is increasing a little bit over last year, with the total export value expected to beat US$3 billion. However, the handicrafts industry is facing a gloomy picture due to fierce competition from China’s cheap mass-produced items.  

Preliminary statistics from the Vietnam Industry and Information Center shows a 38.4% year-on-year increase in Vietnam’s wooden product exports in January-September to US$2.45 billion. Exports to major markets namely the U.S., the EU and Japan have risen by 34.2%, 13.8% and 20.8% respectively.

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Market rises for third straight day

HCMC – The local market gained ground for the third consecutive session on Thursday as blue-chips continued moving up. The VN-Index rose 1.33 points, or 0.29%, from a day earlier to end at 462.05.

On the Hochiminh Stock Exchange, demand dropped 13.6% from the previous session to 62 million shares while supply surged 30.8% to nearly 84 million shares. Liquidity fell slightly with 37.3 million shares worth VND983 billion changing hands, decreasing by 2.5% and 6.4% respectively.

The market opened higher and gained a slight 1.27 points to 461.99 after the first matching phase and then rose further before jumping four points at the middle of the continuous matching phase, only to drop back steadily towards the end of the session.

The number of advancers was almost equal to that of gainers, at 159 to 162, of which nine stocks went to the ceiling prices and seven issues plunged to the floor prices.

PetroVietnam Fertilizer and Chemicals Corp. (DPM) became the most actively traded stock, gaining 4.7% to VND32,900 per share with 1.9 million shares changing hands. Eximbank (EIB) followed, falling 0.5% to VND17,800 with nearly 1.8 million shares traded.

Foreigners were strong net buyers again, acquiring 11.4 million shares worth VND473 billion and offloading 4.7 million shares worth VND172 billion, making up 48% and 17.5% of the market’s buying and selling value respectively.

The Hanoi market, meanwhile, declined strongly and turnover also tumbled to around VND540 billion. The HNX-Index shed 2.22 points, or 1.78%, from the previous session and ended the day at 122.62.

The market saw 122 stocks rising and 160 others falling, including seven stocks shooting up to the ceiling and five stocks dropping to the floor. Foreigners were net buyers, contributing 0.6% and 0.4% of the market’s buying and selling value respectively.

Vietnam International Securities Co. (VIS) in its daily report said the market still maintained the uptrend on Thursday given strong rallies of stock indices globally. Liquidity stayed low as most investors were cautious while some offloaded shares to take profits. The bustling gold market, meanwhile, seemed to be more attractive to local investors.

“The market is still in the cumulative stage and investors are waiting for the third quarter’s financial reports of listed firms. The VN-Index will move in a narrow margin in the last trading day of the week,” VIS said.

APEC Securities Co., meanwhile, said the slowing uptrend on Thursday was not surprising to investors as the VN-Index retreated more than twice when the market neared the range between 465 and 470 points since August. Low liquidity was a positive sign, showing the market had yet to reach the peak of the rising streak.

“We advise that investors stay outside the market on Saturday. The market will correct if the VN-Index broke the 470-point level but stock prices then will be higher than the recent correction stage,” APEC added.

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Coffee assoc wants huge stock to spur prices

HCMC – The Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association, or Vicofa, has asked the Government for permission to buy between 300,000 and 500,000 tons of coffee from the start of the upcoming harvest as a measure to support prices for farmers.

Luong Van Tu, chairman of Vicofa, told the Daily on Thursday that the amount under the retention scheme would vary depending on the fluctuation of prices during the 2010-2011 harvest lasting from later this month until early next year.

In the previous season, the Government assisted traders in stocking 200,000 tons by providing soft loans for them to buy coffee from farmers. However, the scheme did not work well as traders were able to buy only one quarter of the planned amount since the scheme was approved too late when farmers had almost sold out their crop.

“Given experiences from the previous season, we have proposed the Government to start the coffee retention scheme earlier, and therefore, it is expected that prices would be higher in the beginning of the harvest compared to last year,” he said.

However, the Government’s assistance to coffee traders this year would not be in the form of subsidized lending as in the previous year, said an official of the Department of Agro-Forestry, Fishery and Salt Processing under the agriculture ministry.

Rather, the Government will help traders access capital sources to buy coffee, said Le Xuan, head of the department. He added that coffee traders would have to buy the farm produce directly from farmers if they want to gain assistance.

The coffee amount planned for retention this year can be seen as substantial, as Vietnam produces around only one million tons of coffee a year.

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Gold firms get import quotas amid price rally

HCMC – The State Bank of Vietnam on Thursday issued quotas for local enterprises to import gold, sending domestic gold prices down after strong rallies in the previous days.

Nguyen Thi Cuc, deputy general director of Phu Nhuan Jewelry Co. (PNJ), said her company had been allowed to import 300 kg of gold, or around 8,000 taels – a local measurement unit equivalent to 1.2 troy ounces.

PNJ has placed orders with foreign partners and shipments are expected to arrive in Vietnam late this week at the earliest.

Truong Cong Nho, deputy general director of Saigon Jewelry Holding Co. (SJC), said SJC could import 200 kg of gold, or 5,330 taels, and that the yellow metal would arrive early next week.

Domestic gold shot up to VND33.03 million and VND33.1 million per tael for buying and selling respectively at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday but the prices later dropped by nearly VND300,000 shortly after the import quotas were announced.

Local gold on Thursday was VND130,000 per tael higher than the world level, down from the VND860,000 recorded on the previous day.

The central bank also extended import quotas to other large gold firms such as Agribank and Sacombank jewelry companies but the quotas are small.

“The central bank decision will leave a positive psychological impact on the market, helping to ease price hikes, encourage buying and curb selling. Local gold prices might be lower than the world in the future,” Cuc said.

Cuc added buying surged strongly from 3:30 p.m. on Thursday. PNJ as of 5:00 p.m. had sold 5,000 taels and bought 2,800 taels.

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