A production line of shoes for export at Lien Phat Company. — Photo SGGP.com.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Viet Nam became the second largest footwear exporter to the US market last year after China, accounting for 13.8 per cent of the US market share.

The figure was released by the US Customs recently, according to the Viet Nam Leather and Footwear Association (Lefaso).

Viet Nam exported $3.55 billion worth of footwear last year, up 22.4 per cent from 2013 and 119 per cent from 2010.

The export value of Vietnamese footwear sent to the United States registered an average growth rate of 30 per cent for the 2010 to 2014 period.

The total footwear import value for the United States touched US$25.74 billion last year, up 4.5 per cent year-on-year.

China remained the biggest footwear exporter to the United States last year at $16.9 billion, making up for 65.6 per cent of the market share.

Lefaso attributed the rise in Viet Nam's footwear exports during the recent years to higher investment through foreign direct investment (FDI) by enterprises tapping the opportunities offered by the country signing Free trade Agreements (FTAs) with the European Union and South Korea, and entering the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with 11 other countries, including the United States, Japan and Canada.

According to Lefaso, the sector's competitive capacity was also enhanced by an improvement in technology and equipment. The association also forecast that the country's footwear export value will surpass $12 billion by 2015 and will continue to grow going forward.

According to Viet Nam's General Customs Department, last year, the total export value of the sector was pegged at $10.22 billion, showing a year-on-year surge of 21.6 per cent, and accounting for 6.8 per cent of the total export value of the country.

Of this figure, the export value of FDI businesses is estimated at $7.93 billion, accounting for 77 per cent of the country's footwear export value. — VNS