Tienphong vn phap luat index

The Hanoitimes – Vietnam’s rise of three ranking positions to 8th overall is the fastest rise in the top half of the Index and displaces regional partner Thailand in the top 10.

Vietnam moved up three places to 8th in the top 10 countries of the Emerging Markets Logistics Index 2021 by Agility, one of the world’s top freight forwarding and contract logistics providers.

Cargos handling at Dinh Vu port, Hai Phong. Photo: Pham Hung

Among countries in ASEAN, Vietnam stood at third behind Indonesia (3rd overall) and Malaysia (5th), and was above the likes of Thailand (11th), the Philippines (21st) and Cambodia (41st).

According to Agility, Vietnam’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has been one of the most successful globally, with data from Johns Hopkins University showing less than 1,500 reports of Covid-19 cases in the country in 2020.

The combination of social and economic restrictions with a strict and comprehensive testing and tracing system, saw lockdowns last less than three months, and by June many factories were reopened and domestic operations were recovering quickly, it said.

“The steps taken by Vietnam in 2020 propel it into the top 10 ranking in 2021 – its rise of three ranking positions to 8th overall is the fastest rise in the top half of the Index and displaces regional partner Thailand in the top 10,” stated the logistics firm.

“The country’s economy has performed well as a result of the minimal domestic disruptions and is set to be one of the best performing globally in 2020,” noted the report.

The foundation provided by the strong performance in 2020 is expected to underpin a 2021 expansion of 6.5% as domestic and international conditions normalize and the Covid-19 pandemic recedes.

In recent years, Vietnam has added significant hightech manufacturing capacity, helping attract investment from producers higher up the value chain as costs in China increased.

The option to avoid additional costs associated with the US-China trade war has added further motivation for manufacturers to choose Vietnam, noted Agility.

Samsung, which alone contributes a quarter of Vietnam’s exports through smartphone manufacturing activity in the country, will shift PC manufacturing to Vietnam after it shut down a Chinese factory in 2020. Apple is also reported to have requested that Foxconn open a Vietnam production location to add production capacity for iPads and MacBooks.

When the production lines become active in the first half of 2021, it will be the first time iPad manufacture to take place outside China. Meanwhile, chip manufacturer Intel will operate its largest assembly plant in the country and South Korea’s LG electronics announced investment plans during 2020.

With Covid-19 further exposing the risks of over-reliance on China, Vietnam will be an attractive option for relocation – indeed, when asked, 19.2% of survey respondents cited Vietnam as the number one location for those seeking to diversify production locations outside of China.

However, so rapid has the investment and arrival of new businesses been that it is creating challenges of its own, including a shortage of skills and knowledge to produce the highest value goods.

Navigos Group, which owns the country’s largest jobs site, reports that 71% of employers cite a lack of IT skills as their most significant challenge.

The Hanoitimes – The daily turnover in Vietnam’s stock market has been extremely high for the last several months, said the head of independent Finish fund manager Pyn Elite Fund.

Vietnamese listed companies’ first quarter earnings reports in April will indicate strong earnings growth for many businesses in the year 2021.

Petri Derying, portfolio manager of Finland-based Pyn Elite Fund. Source: arvopaperi.fi

Petri Derying, portfolio manager of Finland-based Pyn Elite Fund, wrote in a note, discussing the prospect of Vietnam’s economy this year.

“Covid crisis is still slowing down many economies, but it is likely, that in the year 2021 we will see strong growth globally due to last year’s poor numbers,” said Derying.

According to Derying, there is already evidence of the robust growth in Vietnam’s exports in the first six weeks of the year with a turnover of US$38.57 billion, up 36% year-on-year.

“These numbers indicate very strong growth for the whole year, while the strongest growth was in exports to China,” he said.

Meanwhile, the daily turnover in Vietnam’s stock market has been extremely high for several months already, Derying added.

“The turnover and the spike we’ve seen in VN-index are thanks to the local investors,” he stated, noting in January the foreign investors were net sellers for US$74 million.

However, in February the tide turned and the foreign investors have been net buyers for US$62 million. “We expect this trend to continue,” he concluded.

In early February, Derying stated the year 2021 “looks very good for the Vietnamese stock market”, saying the economy is ready to achieve a record expansion, the listed companies’ earnings growth will surprise on the positive side, and stocks are priced attractively.

Pyn Elite Fund expected the Vn-Index to soon reach 1,800 points, thanks to the companies’ earnings growth forecasts, the strong outlook of the Vietnamese economy and the opportunities presented by the modernization of the stock market.

If the earnings grow as expected, the stock market’s P/E ratio would be in the range of 15–16 to equal index level of 1,800 points. Even thereafter, Vietnam’s economic growth will surely support even higher valuations and index levels, it added.

The Finnish fund believed that the Vietnamese stock market can surprise investors with a “big year” of returns during the 2020–24-time frame.

If the long jumper can add a small distance to his personal best, he will become the first Vietnamese athlete to jump 8m and prove he belongs on the world stage.

Illustrative image (Source: tinnhanhchungkhoan.vn)

Hanoi (VNA) – Steel maker Hoa Phat Group is recruiting experienced personnel for a cargo container manufacturing project expected to start production in the second quarter of next year, according to the company.

The new shipping container plant will have a designed capacity of 500,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) per year.

Global demand for cargo containers is on the rise as a result of growing e-commerce and foreign trade, said Nguyen Manh Tuan , Vice Chairman of the Hoa Phat Group.

“We have been conducting research in various fields and are confident we have the ‘firepower’ to make the container manufacturing project successful and competitive with manufacturers from China, the world’s leading container producer,” he said.

The group’s recruiters are working against the clock to enable the construction of the plant to begin as soon as possible.

According to Hoa Phat, shipping containers are made from weather-resistant and expensive SPA-H steel. Steel currently accounts for about 55 percent of the production cost.

In Vietnam, only the Hoa Phat Dung Quat Complex has the technology to produce this type of steel at a reasonable cost, Tuan said.

Hoa Phat has estimated it will need to produce 1 million tonnes of Hot-Rolled Coil (HRC) steel to reach an annual capacity of half a million TEUs. The group manufactured nearly 700,000 tonnes of HRC and more than 5 million tonnes of billet and construction steel last year.

Its Dung Quat 2 project is scheduled to be operational in early 2022. Set to manufacture HRC steel using the latest advanced technology, it has a designed capacity of 5 million tonnes per year.

Though the shipping container market is growing 5 percent annually, there has been a shortage of supply. In previous years, China had produced 90 percent of the world’s containers. The country, however, has cut output by 40 percent over the last two years, despite growing domestic demand./.