Vietnam Needs US$6Bln to Develop Paper Industry in 2006-2010

Vietnam needs VND95.57 trillion (US$6.01 billion) of investment capital to develop its paper industry between now and 2020, according to the Ministry of Industry (MoI)’s paper industry development strategy until 2010 and long-term plan until 2020.

 

Of the total, investment in factories is required at VND29.67 trillion (US$1.87 billion) for the period of 2006-2010 and VND58 trillion (US$3.65 billion) for 2011-2020. Meanwhile, investment for material zones for 2006-10 is VND2.7 trillion (US$169.62 million) and for the period of 2011-2020 is VND5.21 trillion (US$327.55 million).

 

The industry aims to produce 600,000 tons of pulp and 1.4 million tons of paper per year by 2010. It now suffers a big gap between pulp supply and paper production. The gap is blamed on the lack of high-capacity pulp factories (over 100,000 tons per year each). The domestic pulp supply now only meets 34 per cent of the demand for paper production.

 

According to the MoI, Vietnam’s total paper output currently stands at 850,000 tons, of which the Vietnam Paper Corporation (Vinapaco), the country’s largest paper producer, accounts for 258,000 tons, and total pulp output is 288,000 tons with Vinapaco holding 108,000 tons.

 

It is forecast that the domestic demand for paper will increase by 10-11 per cent per year in the period of 2006-2010 to reach some 22-23kg/ person by 2010 and 50-51kg/person by 2020, which is equal to per capita paper consumption of a developed country.

 

At present, Vietnam has almost 300 pulp and paper mills, eight of which are Vinapaco’s affiliates. Industrial Magazine