The Incheon International Port Authority (IPA) on September 29 reported that eight TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) have been exported from the Republic of Korea (RoK) to Ho Chi Minh City.
The export volume is expected to continue to increase as the high-end office furniture market in Vietnam expands, it said.
Statista, a global market research company, predicts that the size of the furniture market in Vietnam will grow at an average annual rate of 8.7% until 2027. In particular, as the economic level improves, interest in the quality and design of Korean furniture in the Vietnamese market is increasing. As Korean banks, law firms, and companies are increasingly entering into the Vietnamese market, demand for high-end Korean office furniture is also higher.
To catch up with this trend, IPA plans to prepare support measures to reduce logistics costs, such as offering incentives on cargo volume.
To increase exports, IPA is also seeking cooperation with Vietnamese companies such as shipping, logistics, and import-export companies. Previously, the IPA office in Ho Chi Minh City supported 15 Korean small- and medium-sized enterprises to export products through Incheon port and distribute them on Vietnamese e-commerce platforms such as Shopee and Lazada, resulting in an export volume of up to 30 TEUs.
IPA Vice President of Port Operations Kim Sang-ki said the port strives to become a major export channel for office furniture. It pledged to support import-export companies by reducing logistics costs and resolving their difficulties.