Factories in Vietnam produced 44% of Adidas footwear volume in 2017, up from 31% in 2012, while Chinese suppliers made 19%, down from more than 30% in 2012, Rorsted informed.
Adidas to shift production from China to Vietnam.
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Rorsted noted that there was still a lot of uncertainty over what sectors could face new U.S. tariffs. "We might be hit by import duties but it will also apply to our competitors."
German rival Puma, which makes about a third of its products in China, said last month that it is working on contingency plans to move some production from China to other Asian markets if U.S. tariffs are imposed.
Vietnam shipped more than 1 billion pairs of shoes last year, helping the country maintain the position as the second biggest footwear exporter in the world.
According to statistics of the World Footwear Magazine, of 27 billion pairs of shoes exported worldwide last year, 1.02 billion pairs were from Vietnam, equivalent to 7.4% of the global footwear market share.
China was the world's largest footwear exporter last year with 9.31 billion pairs of shoes, representing 67.3% of the global footwear market share.
Statistics from Vietnam's General Department of Customs also showed that the value of Vietnam's exported footwear products have surged consecutively in the past years. Accordingly, the product's export revenue was US$8.4 billion in 2013, US$10.3 billion in 2014, US$12 billion in 2015, US$13 billion in 2016 and US$14.6 billion in 2017.
By the end of last year, Vietnam had 863 footwear exporters, up 15% against the previous year. Foreign direct investment (FDI) firms play a key role in the industry's export as they accounted for more than 80% of the industry's US$14.65 billion total export value last year, or US$11.78 billion.
Vietnamese footwear products exported to more than 100 markets worldwide, of which the United States was the largest export market with turnover of US$5.1 billion last year, up 14% against 2016.
Despite being the world's largest footwear exporter, China was Vietnam's second largest export market with US$1.14 billion last year, up 26% against the previous year.
