The Vietnam’s plastic manufacturing industry has had to spend billions of US dollars on an annual basis to import raw material, equipment and machinery, local manufacturers revealed at a meeting Tuesday.
The industry thus has to completely rely on the imported materials, which reduces its competitiveness, said Tran Viet Anh, deputy chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Rubber and Plastic Association.
“Moreover, we have sent an enormous amount of US dollars to the pockets of international producers,” he added.
The domestic demand for PP plastic is as high as 2.5 million tons a year, but the country’s total supply is only 150,000 tons, he said.
The plastic sector, however, still posted a 20 percent growth in the first nine months of this year with export turnovers worth US$1.1 billion, according to figures from the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
The growth is impressive as plastic businesses have suffered myriad difficulties this year, especially rising power and fuel costs as power accounts for up to 15 percent of total expenses.
The meeting was held as part of the 22nd Asian Plastic Forum hosted by the Vietnam Plastic Association in HCMC.