HANOI, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam gained nearly 5.6 billion U.S. dollars from exporting wood and wood-based products in the first eight months of this year, up 13.3 percent year-on-year, the Wood and Forest Products Association of Vietnam said on Wednesday.
In August, the country earned 730 million U.S. dollars from exporting wood and woodwork, as much as that of July.
Between January and August, the United States, China and South Korea continued to be Vietnam's major export markets which spent more importing more Vietnamese wood and wood-based products.
During the same period, Vietnam spent nearly 1.5 billion U.S. dollars importing wood and woodwork, up 1.3 percent year-on-year.
According to the association, Vietnam is most likely to make wood and woodwork export turnovers of some 9 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, up from over 7.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2017 due to increasing demand both globally and domestically.
The global wood and woodwork market is valued at over 120 billion U.S. dollars a year.
Vietnam is home to nearly 4,000 wood processing enterprises, mainly in the southern region, of which some 1,500 specialize in making products for export, said the association.
