The plastic industry commenced almost half a century ago in Vietnam; however, the production remained limited and diminutive until recent years. Thus, the Vietnamese plastic industry is considered still in its infancy compared to that of other countries in the region like Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and China.  By way of comparison, Vietnam’s production output of plastics per capita was 25 kg of plastic per person in 2005, and is expected to rise to 40 kg per capita by 2010.   Although this is a rapid increase, plastic output per capita of Malaysia in 1999 was 49kg, five times higher than Vietnam’s figure in the same year (9.4kg). Singapore’s output per capita for the same year was 10 times higher and Thailand’s was three times greater and even Indonesia was two times greater for the same period.

Currently, there are about 2700 plastic corporations in Vietnam, 80% of which are of small or medium size and privately owned. Only 6% are state-owned, but they represent about 20% of the total capital invested in the industry. State-owned companies tend to be larger and to employee more workers and have a greater investment total than their small or medium sized private competitors.  The rest are foreign invested enterprises, with about 35% in terms of overall capital investment.

The plastic industry in Vietnam is centered around Ho Chi Minh City and the surrounding provinces and cities such as Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Long An, and Ba Ria Vung Tau attract 80 percent of total investment in the plastic industry of Vietnam, accounting for 80 percent of total plastic products. Ho Chi Minh City is also the centerfor supply production, supply chain support, technical development, distribution and international transaction of the industry in Vietnam.
 
The national plastic industry produces virtually all of what the domestic market consumes and production is currently more oriented toward domestic items and packaging vis-à-vis export. Vietnam’s internal market is changing and increasingly there is more demand for hi-tech plastics products.  Prior to 2004, all Vietnamese plastic products were manufactured with genuine plastic resins. Since then, to comply with the growing demand, the government has allowed the imports of cheaper plastic scrap: Vietnam is Asia’s second largest importer of plastic materials. Nonetheless, such fact is raising an issue as raw plastic material prices have soared recently.

Investment opportunities exist in the packaging field, plastics machinery production, plastics resin production and waste plastics reprocessing sub-sectors.  Good sources for additional information besides Runckel & Associates, which has done numerous projects in this field, are your Embassy’s commercial section or the Vietnam South Plastics Association (VSPA), the Vietnam Plastics Association (VPA) and the ASEAN Federation of Plastics Industries (AFPI).  The VSPA and the VPA are the two largest industry organizations in Vietnam. The VSPA has more than 800 member companies.. The VPMA is a non-government organization with nearly 500 members in 2006.   The AFPI is the largest regional industry organization for the plastics industry.