Vietnam spent $842 million on importing nearly 1.5 million tons of steel billets and finished products in the first quarter of this year, posting year-on-year rises of 69.3 percent and 41.1 percent, respectively.

Vietnamese rice export prices were higher in the week to Tuesday, as state companies continued buying for new export contracts, traders said.

Vietnamese exporters have won a bid in Tokyo to provide 5,000 tons of rice to Japan, marking the seventh successful bid in the discerning market this year.

A major Vietnamese bank has joined forces with a leading transport and freight forwarding company to provide logistics financing services, betting demand will skyrocket after WTO accession.

Vietnam's exports to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in general, and Dubai in particular have the potential to soar after the country's entry into the World Trade Organization, a senior trade official said. By taking full advantage of the market, Vietnamese enterprises will be able to penetrate successfully into the UAE, said Vu Thi Them, Head of the Africa, Western and South Asia Markets Department under the Ministry of Trade (MoT).

Vietnamese traders have already signed contracts to ship over 1 million tons of rice to Indonesia and the Philippines in the first quarter of next year, a ministry source said Friday.

Vietnam will change its rice export strategy by limiting shipments over the next few months to cope with thin stocks and strong demand that is expected early next year, industry officials said Monday

Vietnam has won its fifth tender this year to export rice to Japan. The contract on Oct 6 for supplying 7,000 tons to the Japanese government took total Vietnamese rice exports to this discerning market this year to 102,078 tons, including 3,000 tons of sticky rice, Vietnam’s commercial affairs office in Japan said.

In an attempt to strengthen and stabilize the price of rice in the global market, the world's leading rice exporters in Southeast Asia will join hands to develop a joint model on marketing cooperation.

Vietnam estimated on Tuesday exports in March rose 24 percent from a year earlier and imports rose 14.3 percent, producing a monthly trade deficit of US$100 million.