Vietnam has paid over USD4.8 billion on 8.3 million steel and iron tons imports in the starting 7 months of the current year, reporting a decline of 14.1 percent in value and 0.8 percent in volume compared to the same period a year earlier.

The Vietnam Steel Association said on Thursday that the biggest steel and iron markets exporting to Vietnam in the cited period are China, South Korea and Japan.

The association said that Vietnam has imported a total of 1.6 million tons of the goods having a value of USD818 million, reporting an expansion of 30.9 percent in volume and an expansion of 0.9 percent in value compared to a year ago.

The country has paid around USD9.5 billion on 14.6 million steel and iron imports in the previous year 2019, reporting an increase of 7.6 percent in volume but a decline of 4.2 percent in value compared to 2018.