Vietnam’s export situation to Malaysia
Export value
Viet Nam’s exports to Malaysia during 2015 - 2025 showed an overall upward trend but remained unstable, with many year-to-year fluctuations. Specifically, export value rose from USD 3.58 billion in 2015 to USD 5.33 billion in 2025, equivalent to an increase of nearly 49% over a decade. However, annual growth rates fluctuated considerably, including several years of negative growth such as 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2023. This reflects the cyclical nature of the Malaysian market and its sensitivity to regional economic factors, changes in trade policy, and fluctuations in global supply and demand.
The 2021 - 2022 period marked a strong recovery in exports to Malaysia after disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Growth rates in those two years reached 29.38% and 27.28%, respectively, significantly higher than the growth of Viet Nam’s exports to the world market during the same period. This suggests that Malaysia was one of the markets that recovered quickly and absorbed Vietnamese goods well while the world was heavily affected by the supply chain crisis. This period may be seen as an important turning point in bilateral trade relations and an opportunity to strengthen the position of Vietnamese goods in this market.
However, when compared with the growth rate of Viet Nam’s exports to the world as a whole, Malaysia has not yet truly become a stable and sustainable export market, because while Viet Nam’s exports to the world maintained positive growth in most years (except 2023), exports to Malaysia repeatedly rose and fell, including negative growth in several periods.
Table: Viet Nam’s exports to Malaysia, 2015 - 2025
|
Year |
Viet Nam’s export value to Malaysia (billion USD) |
Viet Nam-Malaysia export growth rate |
Viet Nam-world export growth rate |
|
2015 |
3.58 |
-8.90% |
7.86% |
|
2016 |
3.34 |
-6.57% |
8.99% |
|
2017 |
4.20 |
25.80% |
21.82% |
|
2018 |
4.06 |
-3.32% |
13.29% |
|
2019 |
3.79 |
-6.77% |
8.58% |
|
2020 |
3.39 |
-10.60% |
6.36% |
|
2021 |
4.38 |
29.38% |
19.31% |
|
2022 |
5.58 |
27.28% |
10.46% |
|
2023 |
4.86 |
-12.84% |
-4.81% |
|
2024 |
5.07 |
4.18% |
14.40% |
|
2025 |
5.33 |
5.13% |
17% |
Source: ITC Trade Map, 2026
Main export products and market share
Viet Nam’s exports to Malaysia are quite diverse, ranging from industrial goods such as machinery, equipment, and production inputs (such as iron and steel and chemicals) to consumer products such as garments, agricultural products, and seafood. Among these, machinery, equipment, and production inputs, particularly iron and steel, account for more than half of Viet Nam’s total exports to Malaysia.
Among Viet Nam’s key export products, the country ranked among the top 5 suppliers in 7 out of 10 product groups. This reflects the increasingly deep integration of Vietnamese goods into Malaysia’s supply chains. However, Viet Nam’s presence remains concentrated mainly in traditional advantage sectors such as agricultural products, wood products, footwear, garments, coffee, and salt, which account for around 10–26% of Malaysia’s market share, while Viet Nam is still largely absent from industrial and high-tech sectors, which make up a large share of Malaysia’s import structure.
Table: Top 10 Vietnamese export products to Malaysia in 2025
|
No. |
Good description |
Value (million USD) |
Share of Malaysia’s imports of this product |
Top 5 suppliers to Malaysia for this product |
|
1 |
Chapter 85: Electrical machinery and equipment and parts thereof; sound recorders and reproducers, television image and sound recorders and reproducers, and parts and accessories of such articles |
3,866.9 |
3.53% |
China, Taiwan (China), Singapore, United States, Republic of Korea |
|
2 |
Chapter 84: Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances; parts thereof |
969.1 |
1.84% |
China, United States, Taiwan (China), Singapore, Japan |
|
3 |
Chapter 72: Iron and steel |
465.1 |
8.00% |
China, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Taiwan |
|
4 |
Chapter 10: Cereals |
242.6 |
10.05% |
Argentina, Australia, Viet Nam, India, Pakistan |
|
5 |
Chapter 61: Articles of apparel and clothing accessories, knitted or crocheted |
224.2 |
12.95% |
China, Bangladesh, Singapore, Viet Nam, India |
|
6 |
Chapter 09: Coffee, tea, mate and spices |
212.2 |
21.07% |
Viet Nam, Indonesia, China, Brazil, India |
|
7 |
Chapter 64: Footwear, gaiters and the like; parts of such articles |
200.5 |
25.15% |
China, Viet Nam, Indonesia, Singapore, Italy |
|
8 |
Chapter 44: Wood and articles of wood; wood charcoal |
168.7 |
13.59% |
China, Indonesia, Thailand, Viet Nam, New Zealand |
|
9 |
Chapter 25: Salt; sulphur; earths and stone; plastering materials, lime and cement |
135.1 |
22.12% |
Viet Nam, China, Thailand, Australia, Singapore |
|
10 |
Chapter 15: Animal, vegetable or microbial fats and oils and their cleavage products; prepared edible fats; animal or vegetable waxes |
132.7 |
4.02% |
Indonesia, China, Thailand, Viet Nam, Philippines |
Source: ITC Trade Map, 2026
Source: Center for WTO and International Trade - VCCI
