The Sai Gon Paper Joint Stock Company or Saigon Paper is carrying out construction of My Xuan II Paper Mill with total investment of US$50 million in southern Ba Ria Vung Tau province, according to the Vietnam Pulp & Paper Association (VPPA).
The mill, which has designed capacity of 225,000 tons a year, together with Dong An Paper Factory in northern Hung Yen province, will bring the company’s total paper mill number to four.
Both the My Xuan II and Dong An are schedule to come into operation in early 2009.
Presently, Sai Gon Paper is running two paper mills, one is My Xuan Paper Factory with total capacity of 93,000 tons of tissue a year and Sai Gon Central Factory with capacity reaching 420,000 tons a year.
Sai Gon Paper is now the fourth biggest paper manufacturer in Vietnam with annual production capacity of 100,000 tons. The three biggest include the Vietnam Paper General Company, Tan Mai Paper JSC and Chanh Duong Paper Co. Ltd, producing 160,000 tons, 110,000 tons and 100,000 tons a year, respectively.
Vietnamese paper industry is contriving to increase capacity on growing local demand, by allowing a number of paper and pulp projects.
In the first five months of 2007, the industry has nodded to five large projects, comprising 250,000 ton pulp mill by the Vietnam Paper General Company; 220,000 ton paper mill by Vina Draft; 350,000 ton paper mill and 150,000 ton pulp mil by Hong Kong’s Lee & Man and 150,000 ton paper mill by An Binh Paper Company.
It is considering some other huge projects like 600,000 ton pulp mill by Japan’s Sojitz and 50,000 ton paper and pulp mill by Phu Giang Paper Company.
In 2006, Vietnam produced 958,000 tons of paper but it had to spend nearly $463 million importing 776,958 tons.
Last year, the country consumed more than 1.55 million tons of paper, up 17 per cent against 2005 with 60 per cent for packing production and only 15 per cent for printing and writing. (Vietnam Economic Times,
www.vppa.com.vn))
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