Plastics exports forecast to rise 6 percent in 2017

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According to VPA President Ho Duc Lam, Japan, with a demand of US$8 billion worth of plastic products each year, remains a promising market for Vietnam’s plastic. However, the market has high requirements for quality, which poses a challenge to the majority of Vietnamese firms, he added.

Meanwhile, the US market has continued applying the anti-dumping duty on plastic bags, causing difficulties for the export of the product to the market. But the country still imports other products, such as canvas, home plastic and plastics used for packaging, along with plastic films.

The EU market has a high demand for plastic products, he said, adding that it has not levied the anti-dumping tax on Vietnamese products.

Lam also noted difficulties facing local producers, including the large amount of imported input materials, which has reduced the sector’s competitiveness and made it difficult to take advantages of tariff preferences.

Changes in material prices and currency exchange rate also impacted the sector significantly, he said.

According to the VPA, in 2016, the plastic sector earned US$2.54 billion from exports, a slight rise compared to US$2.4 billion in 2015, including US$2.1 billion from exports of products and US$345 million from material exports.

In the year, Japan, the US and the EU were the largest markets of Vietnamese plastic. In the Japanese and EU markets, Vietnamese products made a slight growth, due to a fierce competition there and the fluctuating currency exchange rate. Meanwhile, a high growth of 7.8% was achieved in the US market.