Singapore (VNA) – Vietnam has retained its position as Singapore’s 10th largest trading partner, with bilateral trade reaching 4.5 billion SGD (around 3.5 billion USD) in January, up 33.9% year on year.
Notably, while Singapore’s exports to Vietnam rose 13.6% to 3 billion SGD, imports from Vietnam surged 100.5% to 1.6 billion SGD. The sharp increase in Vietnamese shipments is seen as a positive sign in narrowing the trade gap and points to strong prospects for further growth in exports to the Singaporean market this year.
Statistics from Enterprise Singapore show that the city state posted a trade surplus of nearly 1.4 billion SGD with Vietnam in January 2026, though this represented a 24.6% decline compared with the same month in 2025. Of the total, its domestically produced exports to Vietnam amounted to 710.5 million SGD, down 6.4%, while re-exports reached 2.2 billion SGD, up 21.8%.
Electrical machinery, equipment and parts (HS 85), and mineral fuels, oils and distillation products, bituminous substances and mineral waxes (HS 27), remained the largest export categories to Vietnam, with combined shipments worth 2.2 billion SGD, accounting for 76.2% of Singapore’s total exports to the country last month.
However, the structures of these exports differ markedly. Electrical machinery, equipment and parts (HS 85) consisted predominantly of re-exports, making up 94.3% of the category’s value. By contrast, mineral fuels and related products (HS 27) were overwhelmingly domestically produced, with a localisation rate of 99.5%.
Other notable export groups to Vietnam in January included nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery, mechanical equipment and parts (HS 84), valued at 166.9 million SGD, up 23.9%; plastics and plastic products (HS 39), at 72 million SGD, down 11.6%; and essential oils, perfumes, cosmetics and toilet preparations (HS 33), at 57.4 million SGD, up 35.6%.
On the import side, electrical machinery and equipment (HS 85) continued to record the highest value among goods sourced from Vietnam, at more than 657.8 million SGD, a rise of 76.5% year on year, accounting for 41.4% of total imports from the country. This was followed by machinery and mechanical appliances (HS 84), which soared 333.8% to 641.6 million SGD, and glass and glassware (HS 70), at 77.2 million SGD, down 6.2%.
Other categories included mineral fuels and related products (HS 27), at 43.7 million SGD, up 385.1%; salt, sulphur, earths and stone, plastering materials, lime and cement (HS 25), at 15.1 million SGD, up 54.4%; optical, photographic, cinematographic, measuring and medical or surgical instruments and parts (HS 90), at 9.5 million SGD, up 23.7%.
Cao Xuan Thang, Vietnam's Trade Counsellor in Singapore, stated that as 2026 is the first year of implementing the five-year socio-economic development plan for 2026–2030, the Vietnam Trade Office will closely follow domestic action plans and directives to implement tasks from the outset of the year./.
