The Vietnam Supply Chain Adjustment & How You Can Access
Companies are making the shift from China to Vietnam here's how you can take advantage.
In December 2019 Vietnam was the United State’s 13th largest trading partner, and by October 2022 they grew to 7th largest. A lot of companies that were based in China are moving to Vietnam including heavy hitters like Apple and Microsoft.
This supply chain shift is happening for many reasons and I’ll try to lay all of them out for you:
More Expensive - Labor rates in China have been rising for years, people have been saying China is no longer a '“low-cost” country.
China became less business oriented - Under Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao China was very focused on capitalism, business and economic output but when Xi Jinping took office he had a different mentality, he’s more concerned with power, communism and making people bend the knee.
US-China Economic Warfare - If you’re a company operating in China and selling to the US you do not want to get caught in between the fighting and have your whole business disrupted. So it’s better to move and or diversify your supply chain.
Morals - China is actively throwing Uyghur people “re-education” camps. If you’re doing business with them you know you partly funded that effort. People don’t want to be part of that if they feel like they have other options.
Vietnam currently does not have any of these issues and companies are making the move. People were talking about India but Vietnam surpassed India in US trade numbers.
Where Do I Find Vietnamese Suppliers?
Well, I went through that for you so you don’t have to go through the hassle of finding out yourself. They’re not up to the same standard yet when it comes to international buyers finding products as China but if you’re worried about the reasons above it’s probably still worth it for you.
Alibaba & Global Sources - These are Chinese websites, yes. But if you filter by Vietnam there are tons of Vietnamese suppliers on them. After you make contact with the suppliers, gotten shipments and established trust. You can then shift to Whatsapp messenger and do your business. That way you’re not relying on a Chinese company to middleman (you should be doing this with all your business connections anyway).
If not Alibaba you’re going to have to use some product sourcing agents/websites like:
Vietnam Export, Cosmo Sourcing etc.
Attending trade expos like Vietnamexpo
Like I said they’re not as robust as China yet so you might have to rely on sourcing agents a lot more than you want to. As always thanks for reading, I’ll try to bring you guys more actionable Geopolitics like this in the future.