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Tag: Vietnam

  • Vietnam casinos enjoy double-digit revenue growth

    Vietnam casinos enjoy double-digit revenue growth

    Eight casinos in Vietnam saw their combined revenues rise 60 percent from 2018 to VND2.5 trillion ($108 million) last year.

    These eight establishments were licensed before March 2017, when the government began a trial project allowing Vietnamese to gamble in local casinos, according to a recent report by the Ministry of Finance. Earlier, only foreigners were allowed to play at casinos in Vietnam.

    Five of the casinos are in the north, two in the central region, and one in the south. They contributed VND1.34 trillion ($58 million) to state’s coffers last year, up 49 percent year-on-year.

    But not all eight casinos recorded growth. Royal International Corporation (RIC), which operates the largest casino in the northern province of Quang Ninh, for example, saw revenues decline of 45 percent from 2018 to VND97.8 billion ($4.2 million) last year. It also recorded a loss of VND50.4 billion.

    The Aristo International Hotel Casino in the border province of Lao Cai, operated by Australian company Donaco International Limited, saw revenues falling 17 percent from 2018 to AUD21.5 million ($15.4 million) last year. Its profits dropped 44 percent to AUD4.8 million ($3.4 million).

    After March 2017, three more casinos were licensed in Vietnam, including Casino Corona on Phu Quoc Island off Vietnam’s southern coast, which began operation in January last year and was the first casino in Vietnam to allow locals to play.

    Its revenue from casino operations was VND1.38 trillion ($59.5 million) last year. It earned pre-tax profits of VND280 billion, serving 105,000 customers last year, of which 45 percent were Vietnamese.

  • Deutsche Bank Names Vietnam Country Chief

    Deutsche Bank Names Vietnam Country Chief

    He joins from Maritime Bank, a Vietnamese bank where he was CEO for four years before taking up its deputy chairman position earlier this year.

    Deutsche Bank has appointed seasoned banker Huynh Buu Quang to lead the bank’s expansion of its franchise in Vietnam, pending State Bank of Vietnam approval.

    As chief country officer Vietnam, Huang will be based in Ho Chi Minh City. He brings more than 25 years of experience in corporate banking, and has held local and regional leadership roles in Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong and Indonesia, across multiple banking functions spanning trade finance and credit risk management.

    Alexander von zur Muehlen, Deutsche Bank’s Asia Pacific CEO called Vietnam «a key growth market» for the bank in ASEAN, in a statement announcing the move.

    Deutsche Bank has operated in the country since 1992. Since 2017, the bank has raised more than $1 billion in debt, loan and equity capital annually for Vietnamese corporates.

    Earlier this year, Deutsche Bank announced that it would increase its investment in Vietnam, with the recently ratified EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement expected to boost trade flows.

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  • Samsung denies moving part of Vietnam smartphone production to India

    Samsung denies moving part of Vietnam smartphone production to India

    Samsung has rebutted reports it plans to shift part of its smartphone production in Vietnam to India, saying the former will continue to be the group’s major manufacturing base.

    Samsung Vietnam said in a statement that its smartphone manufacturing factories in the northern provinces of Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen are operating as usual.

    Vietnam will always be Samsung’s important production base in the world, it stated on Tuesday, adding that reports on the shift to India are “unfounded.”

    The statement came after India’s Economic Times on August 17 reported that Samsung “may shift a major part of its smartphone production to India from Vietnam and other countries,” citing sources.

    The report said the South Korean conglomerate had submitted estimates of making smartphones worth over $40 billion in the next five years to the Indian government.

    “Samsung is likely to diversify its production lines for making smartphones to India under the PLI (Production Linked Incentive) scheme and this will have an impact in its existing capabilities across various countries like Vietnam,” the English-language daily quoted a source “familiar with the matter” as saying.

    About half of Samsung’s smartphones are produced in Vietnam, where it has invested over $17 billion so far. Its first plant in the country was built in 2008.

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  • Shopee dominates online shopping in Vietnam

    Shopee dominates online shopping in Vietnam

    Shopee reported a new web traffic record in Vietnam with 52.5 million monthly visits last quarter, exceeding Lazada’s previous record in 2017.

    The Singapore online shopping platform’s numbers exceeded those of the next two put together, Vietnamese companies Mobile World (25.1 million) and Tiki (21.1 million), according to data collated by Malaysian online shopping aggregator iPrice Group.

    Shopee achieved growth of 21.6 percent from the first quarter, while the three behind it, Mobile World, Tiki, and Singapore’s Lazada, saw declines of 6-12 percent.

    In the last quarter of 2017 Lazada reported 50.5 million monthly visits, but since then its numbers have declined — to 18.5 million in the second quarter of this year — as other players grabbed a bigger share of the market.

    Tiki and another homegrown player Sendo informed authorities in June that they planned to merge, but later decided to call off the deal due to disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and disagreements between their shareholders.

    Last year Vietnam’s Internet economy, which has been growing annually at 38 percent since 2015, was estimated to be worth $12 billion.

    It is expected to rise to $43 billion by 2025, according to the “e-Conomy Southeast Asia report 2019” by Google, Singapore investment firm Temasek and U.S. global management consultancy Bain.

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  • Kerry Logistics Network’s subsidiary Kerry Apex ranked number one NVOCC from Asia to the US

    Kerry Logistics Network’s subsidiary Kerry Apex ranked number one NVOCC from Asia to the US

    Kerry Logistics Network Limited is pleased to announce that Kerry Apex, its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary, was the number one non-vessel operating common carrier (‘NVOCC’) from Asia to the US from January through July 2020, supported by a well-positioned team in Southeast Asia to capture the export volume shift from China to Asia.

    Kerry Apex was the third-largest NVOCC in terms of volume from Asia to the US in 2019. In the first seven months of 2020, Kerry Apex outperformed the market by recording a 6% growth in volume against the market trend of a 7% contraction in the same period.

    Kerry Apex shot to the top spot through capturing the volume shift from China to Southeast Asia by a strong regional team perfectly situated to handle the volume surge, earning additional origin-controlled shipments and winning new customers, on top of the increased demand from existing customers who restocked their inventory. Kerry Apex was also able to build on its long-standing relationships with ocean-carrier partners who helped it to secure the space needed to move its customers’ freight from Asia to the US. Kerry Apex’s achievement was made possible by the tremendous support from within Kerry Logistics’ global network both in origin and destination.

    Vicky Cheung, Executive Director of Kerry Logistics Network, said, “We are gratified to see that the efforts of our team in Southeast Asia and the relationships we have built with our partners have paid off. While the protracted US-China trade war and the as-yet-uncontained COVID-19 pandemic are clouding the horizon, we are confident that we will maintain our leading position in ocean freight for the rest of 2020.”

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  • Car imports plummet nearly half

    Car imports plummet nearly half

    Vietnam imported 44,973 cars in the first seven months, down 47.5 percent year-on-year amid a slump in auto demand due to Covid-19.

    The value of the cars was around $1 billion, falling by 47 percent year-on-year, according to Vietnam Customs. Over 80 percent of the cars were imported from Thailand and Indonesia, tax-free under the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement. Thailand accounted for 19,944 units and Indonesia for 17,723.

    July saw a recovery from the previous month to 4,760 cars worth $107.7 million, up 34 percent and 10 percent. Auto sales in the first seven months fell 28 percent year-on-year to 131,200 units, with the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA) blaming it on a fall in demand due to the pandemic.

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  • Pacific Airlines gets new CEO

    Pacific Airlines gets new CEO

    The board of Vietnam Airlines has named a new CEO for subsidiary Pacific Airlines, formerly Jetstar Pacific.

    Dinh Van Tuan, 50, has taken from Nguyen Thuong Hoang Hai, who quit for personal reasons. Tuan was earlier the director of Vietnam Airlines’ operations center, and has served in various capacities at the carrier since 1996.

    Jetstar Pacific became Pacific Airlines on August 1 and got a new logo as Vietnam Airlines, which owns a 68.86 percent stake in it, seeks to buy another 30 percent stake from Australia’s Qantas.

    The first joint-stock airline in Vietnam was set up in 1991. In its 29 years, it has only reported profits for four years. It has major expansion plans, with the current fleet of 18 aircraft set to be increased to 50 by 2025.

  • Samsung tops Vietnamese smartphone market

    Samsung tops Vietnamese smartphone market

    Samsung increased its market share to 33 percent in the second quarter to become the largest smartphone brand in Vietnam. Despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the South Korean firm increased its sales by 4 percent year-on-year, Singaporean technology market analysis firm Canalys said in a recent report.

    China’s Oppo and Vivo followed with 17 percent and 12 percent share of the market, respectively. But their sales trends diverged wildly, with Oppo’s falling by 26 percent and Vivo’s increasing by 246 percent. VinSmart, a subsidiary of Vietnam’s largest listed company, Vingroup, was fourth with an 11 percent market share. It had launched its first product at the end of 2018, and produced its first 5G smartphones in collaboration with U.S. chip giant Qualcomm last month. VinSmart is focusing on the low-end segment with 12 offerings all priced at below VND5 million ($212).

    China’s Realme was in fifth place with a market share of 9 percent after growing at 63 percent. According to We Are Social, a social media marketing and advertising agency, around 75 million people, or almost 80 percent of the country’s population, use smartphones.

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  • Vietnamese rice now more pricey than Thailand’s

    Vietnamese rice now more pricey than Thailand’s

    With the Thai baht weakening, Vietnamese rice is fetching 3 percent higher prices in global markets than varieties from Thailand.

    Vietnam’s 5-percent broken rice has been priced at $468-472 per ton since August 8, $15 more than its Thai rivals. The prices have risen by 6.8 percent since the beginning of this month.

    Vietnam was the third-largest rice exporter last year behind India and Thailand. In the first seven months of this year, it exported $1.9 billion worth of grains, up 10.9 percent year-on-year, with the Philippines being the top buyer, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

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  • Toyota Vietnam recalls 2,700 cars over faulty airbags

    Toyota Vietnam recalls 2,700 cars over faulty airbags

    Toyota Vietnam is recalling over 2,700 Vios and Corolla sedans for airbag faults that can cause severe damage to users in the event of a crash.

    The recall covers 2,568 Toyota Vios cars assembled in Vietnam between September 2007 and December 2008, and 145 imported Toyota Corolla cars produced between January 2004 and April 2005, according to a statement submitted by the automaker to the Vietnam Register.

    The inflator canister in these vehicles can be penetrated by humidity. In some crashes, the activation of the airbag can break the inflator into pieces. These pieces can be pushed through the inflated airbag, causing serious damage to users, Toyota Vietnam said.

    Customers can bring their vehicles for a free replacement of the faulty parts at Toyota dealers. The replacement should take up to 1.5 hours. The recall will run until August 2022.

    In 2018, Toyota Vietnam recalled more than 11,300 cars with similar airbag faults.

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  • Saigon zoo operator posts $800,000 loss

    Saigon zoo operator posts $800,000 loss

    The Saigon Zoo-Botanical Garden Company Ltd reported a loss of VND18.8 billion ($809,600) for the first half as Covid-19 kept people away from its zoo.

    The operator of the country’s largest zoo in Ho Chi Minh City saw revenues drop by half year-on-year to VND27 billion ($1.2 million). The 156-year old zoo in District 1 closed for two months from March 20 as Covid-19 containment measures took effect. Its loss was the third largest among seven loss-making state-owned companies based in the city. The operator also has VND18 billion ($775,200) in debts, mostly salaries. Its 270 employees have agreed to a 30 percent salary cut this month.

    It recently called for public donations to help the zoo care for its 1,500 animals, which require nearly five tons of meat, vegetables, fruit, and leaves daily.

    The zoo has over 125 animals and 900 plant species.

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  • Vietnam retail sales continued to recover before Covid-19 second wave hit

    Vietnam retail sales continued to recover before Covid-19 second wave hit

    Vietnam’s retail industry continued to recover after the March lockdown to fight Covid-19, with a 4.3-per-cent increase year on year in July’s retail sales.

    However, after being virus-free for more than three months, Vietnam is now facing the second wave of Covid-19 which originated in the coastal city of Danang. With a full lockdown in Da Nang and partial lockdown in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, retail sales are expected to be impacted this month.

    According to the General Statistics Office (SGO), retail sales dropped just 0.4 percent year on year over the first seven months of this year, reaching about US$121.7 billion.

    The office said Vietnam’s retail sales have shown positive signs of economic recovery due to domestic consumption and tourism push in July. Last month, Vietnam retail sales rose 3.3 percent from June’s figures.

    Sales of consumer goods reached $96.4 billion, increasing by 3.6 percent year on year. Growth sectors include home appliances and fresh-food products with 7.6 percent and 7.5 percent increases respectively. Meanwhile, F&B revenues fell 16.6 percent, generating $12.2 billion.

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  • Vietnam retail sales continued to recover before Covid-19 second wave hit

    Vietnam retail sales continued to recover before Covid-19 second wave hit

    Vietnam’s retail industry continued to recover after the March lockdown to fight Covid-19, with a 4.3-per-cent increase year on year in July’s retail sales.

    However, after being virus-free for more than three months, Vietnam is now facing the second wave of Covid-19 which originated in the coastal city of Danang. With a full lockdown in Da Nang and partial lockdown in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, retail sales are expected to be impacted this month.

    According to the General Statistics Office (SGO), retail sales dropped just 0.4 percent year on year over the first seven months of this year, reaching about US$121.7 billion.

    The office said Vietnam’s retail sales have shown positive signs of economic recovery due to domestic consumption and tourism push in July. Last month, Vietnam retail sales rose 3.3 percent from June’s figures.

    Sales of consumer goods reached $96.4 billion, increasing by 3.6 percent year on year. Growth sectors include home appliances and fresh-food products with 7.6 percent and 7.5 percent increases respectively. Meanwhile, F&B revenues fell 16.6 percent, generating $12.2 billion.

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  • Vietnam Airlines loss soars to $280 mln

    Vietnam Airlines loss soars to $280 mln

    Vietnam Airlines reported a loss of over VND4 trillion ($170 million) in the second quarter and cumulative first-half losses of over VND6.64 trillion ($286 million).

    In its consolidated financial statement for the second quarter of 2020, the carrier reported revenues of just VND6 trillion ($258.6 million), a 68 percent fall from the previous quarter.

    It blamed the decline on the Covid-19 pandemic, which had forced it to suspend all international flights and, during the social distancing period in early April, limit domestic flights.

    Significantly cutting sales, financial and management costs did not enable the airline to remain in the black. Earlier this month its CEO, Duong Tri Thanh, estimated that its full-year revenues would drop by half from last year to just VND50 trillion ($2.16 billion), and the loss would be around VND13 trillion ($560.34 million).

    The airline has asked the government for an urgent VND12 trillion ($517.24 million) bailout, claiming it would otherwise be in a very difficult situation by the end of August. It will hold its annual general meeting, which has been delayed twice due to the agenda, on August 10.

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  • Brewer Sabeco sees profits plummet

    Brewer Sabeco sees profits plummet

    Vietnam’s largest brewer Sabeco saw its H1 post-tax profit fall 31 percent year-on-year to VND1.93 trillion ($83 million) over Covid-19 pandemic impacts. Revenues fell 35 percent to VND12 trillion ($518 million), 89 percent of it from beer, and the rest from wine and other beverages.

    The company, owned by Thai beverage giant ThaiBev, said that the profit plunge came as Vietnam imposed social distancing measures and closed “non-essential” businesses to contain the novel coronavirus. Authorities ordered most businesses, including restaurants and bars, to close in March and April.

    Vietnam’s new regulations on drunk driving have also impacted on its business, Sabeco said. The country’s new regime of fines – up to VND8 million ($345) for DUI motorbike drivers and VND40 million ($1,730) for car drivers have kept drinkers away from restaurants and bars. Sabeco forecasts a post-tax profit fall of 37 percent this year to VND3.25 trillion.

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