Vietnam Paper 2016

GDP growth rate in 2013 rose 5.42% year-over-year, higher than 5.25% of 2012.

GDP growth rate of the industry and construction sector rose 5.43%, lower than 5.75% of 2012.

CPI in 2013 rose 6.04% year-on-year (the lowest growth rate in the past 10 years).

import and export in 2013: Export turnover was estimated at 132.2 billion USD, rose 15.4% year-on-year. import turnover reached 131.3 billion USD, rose 15.4% year-on-year. This means Vietnam continued trade surplus of over 0.9 billion USD, after already trade surplus of 780 million USD in 2012 (domestic sector reached trade deficit at 13.1 billion USD, foreign invested sector reached trade surplus at 14 billion USD).

According to statistics of the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, FDI in 2013 was registered at 21.6 billion USD, total FDI disbursement was 11.5 billion USD (highest in the past four years).

Retail sales value of goods and services in 2013 was 2,618,000 billion VND, rose 12.6% year-on-year (lowest growth rate in the past four years). Excluding price factor, retail sales value of goods and services in 2013 rose 5.6%.

Economic situation in 2013 strongly affected the paper industry. Paper consumption reduced, price was low, production costs continued to increase and paper imported increased significantly, which caused more difficulties for Vietnamese paper manufacturers.

Economy growth rate was low over the years caused downtime for tens of thousands of businesses. In Vietnam’s Pulp and Paper industry, many businesses went bankrupt, including Tan Mai Corporation Joint-stock Company, the second biggest paper company in Vietnam, My Huong Paper Joint-stock Company that ranked tenth in capacity in Vietnam and nearly hundreds of small-sized companies whose capacity below 10,000 tons/year.

Bleached hardwood kraft (BHK) pulp production: mainly at An Hoa Paper Joint-stock Company whose capacity at 130,000 tons/years and at Vietnam Paper Company whose capacity at 75,000 tons/years.
Despite newly established company, pulp output of An Hoa Paper Joint-stock Company in 2013 reached over 80% design capacity. Vietnam Paper Company also utilized its pulp capacity. Therefore, BHK pulp output in 2013 was 180,000 tons/year.

Unbleached hardwood kraft (UHK) pulp production was still continued at several medium-sized integrated sites, for internal use. Output in 2013 was about 80,000 tons/years.
Chemical thermal mechanical pulp (CTMP) production in Vietnam was totally stopped, due to downtime of Tan Mai Paper Factory (belongs to Tan Mai Corporation Joint-stock Company) for movement.

Pulp import and export
An Hoa Paper Joint-stock Company exported its pulp to China, although pulp volume was not great, estimated 30,000 tons. In 2013, Vietnam only imported BHK pulp, though BHK volume decreased as domestic production increased. BHK imported was 80,000 tons.

Recovered paper
In 2013, Vietnam’s paper industry consumed nearly 80% OCC, ONP and OMG and materials replacing fiber to produce paper. This rate in 2012 was 72%.

Post-consumption paper collection system in Vietnam in 2013 met 70% demand, the rest 30% was imported mainly from America and Japan. The domestic and imported collection rates in 2012 were 69% and 31% respectively.

However, paper collection rate in Vietnam is still lower than other countries in the region. This rate in 2013 was 36%, which is improved compared to 34.85% in 2012.