Vehicle traders long way from first gear

Authorities have put up road blocks to prevent large-scale car imports

According to initial calculations from the General Statistics Office (GSO), Vietnam imported some 4,000 complete built units (CBUs) in July, a considerable decrease from 4,500 vehicles imported in the previous month.

CBUs continued to be on the list of imported products that need to be strictly limited by local authorities to cope with trade deficit, besides complete built motorbikes, air conditioners, washing machines, beer and alcohol.

Figures from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) showed that import value of less-then-nine-seat CBUs and other kinds of import products needed to be controlled reached $4.7 billion in the first half of this year, accounting for 12 per cent of the country’s overall imports.

In order to take stronger control and limit the imports of CBUs, the MoIT and Ministry of Transport recently issued a joint document, defining only five seaports authorised to receive import CBUs with less then 16 seats. They are Cai Lan, Haiphong, Danang, Ho Chi Minh City and Ba Ria-Vung Tau ports.  The regulation, which was previously applied merely on used cars imported into Vietnam, took effect from July 29, 2010.

The joint document also defined some other strict requirements regarding to environmental protection and registration for imported automobile vehicles.

Previously, local authorities also applied strong measures to prevent massive imports of CBUs, including bans on imported cars to be stored in seaports and increased loading charges for automobile containers.

The GSO, however, stressed that although the number of imported CBU vehicles experienced a decline, import values increased to $90 million in July from $81 million in June.

The surge in import value was mostly due to the increase in buying heavy trucks and luxury vehicles into Vietnam during the month.

In the first seven months of the year, the country imported a total of 27,023 complete built cars worth some $484 million.