HANOI, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam gained nearly 7.2 billion U.S. dollars from exporting wood and wood-based products in the first 10 months of this year, up 14.9 percent year-on-year, the Wood & Forest Products Association of Vietnam said on Friday.

In October alone, the country earned 800 million U.S. dollars from exporting wood and woodwork, up 18.5 percent on-year.

Between January and October, the United States, Japan, China and South Korea remained Vietnam's biggest export markets.

In the same period, Vietnam spent nearly 1.9 billion U.S. dollars importing wood and woodwork, up 4.9 percent year-on-year.

According to the association, Vietnam is most likely to make wood and woodwork export turnovers of some 9 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, up from over 7.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2017 due to the increasing demand both globally and domestically.

The global wood and woodwork market is valued at over 120 billion U.S. dollars a year.

Vietnam is home to nearly 4,000 wood processing enterprises, mainly in the southern region, of which some 1,500 specialize in making products for export, said the association.