Discussions on the Vietnamese automobile industry may be overshadowed by upcoming tax exemptions which cars imported from ASEAN will enjoy in 2018, but Chinese-made vehicles have stolen the spotlight with shocking import statistics released last week.

Vietnam imported 8,860 vehicles from China in the first fourth months of this year, a massive 289 percent increase from the same period last year, according to the latest customs data.

In total more than 35,000 completely built cars, collectively worth US$880 million, were shipped to the Southeast Asian country in the first four months of this year, a 131 percent increase in volume and 180 percent rise in value year on year, the Vietnam Customs said Friday.

Most of the imports are cars with fewer than nine seats, accounting for 13,200 units, compared to 13,000 trucks.

The growth from the Chinese market was the strongest among other countries, from which Vietnam also imported more complete cars in the Jan-Apr period, according to the customs authority.

The respective numbers of complete cars Vietnam brought home from Thailand, India, and Japan in the four-month period were 6,850, 5,700, and 2,290, representing year-on-year increases of 165 percent, 164 percent, and 120 percent.

Imports from South Korea also rose 48 percent to 7,740 vehicles, according to the Vietnam Customs.

South Korea has been Vietnam’s largest vehicle exporter for years, but that top spot has been taken over by China.

Complete cars are classified as the commodity that has contributed most to Vietnam’s trade deficit in the year to date, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Vietnam’s Jan-Apr trade deficit topped $2.07 billion, according to a report released Thursday by the Vietnam Customs. The statistics contradictestimates announced late last month by the General Statistics Office, which said the deficit could be $3 billion.

But Vietnam’s Minister of Planning and Investment Bui Quang Vinh does not think the increasing import of cars is a negative sign.

“It is not an issue if imports of commodities that are necessary for the economy add to a larger trade deficit,” he said at a government meeting in April.

“The increased import of trucks indicates that the economy is recovering as people require more such vehicles to serve their transportation needs.”

Vietnam’s automobile industry is under pressure to partially cut and completely lift the tariff barriers against cars imported from other countries in the ASEAN region from now to 2018.

ASEAN stands for Association of Southeast Asian Nations, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam.

By that time, there will be a very small price gap between imported cars and those assembled domestically, prompting some foreign automakers to weigh whether to continue assembling cars in the Southeast Asian country, with Toyota being a prime example.

The Japanese carmaker has proposed a series of tax breaks for locally assembled cars so that it can increase the localization rate and open new factories in Vietnam after hinting that it may stop making automobiles in the country by 2025 over the said reasons.

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