Plastics rake in US$700 million in revenues

Viet Nam's plastics export turnover struck US$700 million, a year-on-year increase of 46 percent, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

In the first 11 months of the year, the country's plastics export earned US$641 million, surpassing this year's target of US$600 million.

To reach the target, the sector focused on investment in developing plastic materials, high quality production and waste plastic processing, said Le Duong Quang, deputy minister of Industry and Trade.

Nguyen Hoang Ngan, Binh Minh Co director said: "Right now, domestic producers like us are building modern factories and using alternative channels to source raw materials for plastic goods production."

According to the ministry, 90 percent of plastic materials for production are imported, particularly from Asian countries such as Thailand, China and Singapore.

To reduce dependency on imported materials, the industry plans to produce 800,000 tonnes, or 30 percent of the total material needed for plastic production by 2010.

By 2010, the industry hopes to earn US$1 billion through the export of 4 million tonnes of plastics.

However, it's difficult to reach the target due to the nation's lack of petrochemical industry – the main supplier of material for plastic production. While, the sector is yet to fully exploit waste plastic materials, said Quang.

The Viet Nam Plastics Association said the US, Japan, Switzerland, Norway, the UK, Germany and Cambodia were the biggest importers of the country's plastic products including packaging, canvas and gloves. (VNE)