Overview of Vietnam’s paper market in 2018 – Part 1. Packaging Paper

Vietnam paper industry in 2018 in general had a strong growth compared to 2017 and it established the highest growth rate in the history of Vietnam’s paper industry. Consumption of all kinds of paper achieved an output of 4.946 million tons, an increase of 16% as compared to 2017; paper production reached 3.674 million tons, up by 31%; exports reached 809,250 tons, up by 63%; and imports reached 2.081 million tons, up by 6%.

In terms of value, exports of paper and finished paper products achieved a turnover of USD 1,088 billion, an increase of 50% as compared to 2017. Imports of paper and paper products reached a turnover of USD 2,674 billion – an increase of 13, 8% as compared to 2017.

Packaging paper market

The total consumption of packaging paper in Vietnam in 2018 reached 3.818 million tons, accounted for 77.2% of the total consumption of all kinds of paper, up by 20% over the same period, making it the highest growth rate of Vietnam’s packaging paper industry in the history. In particular, the consumption of uncoated packaging paper reached 3.17 million tons, accounted for 83% of all paper consumption. The remaining 17% belongs to 648,400 tons of coated paper (not counting for coated packaging paper used for liquids such as milk, alcohol, juice, …).

The production of packaging paper in 2018 achieved an output of 3.046 million tons, accounted for 81.3% of the proportion of paper production, with a growth of 37% over the same period. This set the highest growth rate in production in the history of Vietnamese paper industry. This increase in production mainly came from FDI enterprises such as Lee & Man, VinaKraft, Chanh Duong and partly from Vietnamese firms. However, packaging paper in Vietnam is mainly corrugated cardboard and surface layer, white-top liner (white-top liner) from recycled paper, low-grade cement packaging paper. The production output of coated duplex paperboard is about 40,000 tons / year (16%), while the rest is imported (84%). It is expected that in 2019, the production of surface and corrugated paper will increase by about 900,000 tons, mainly coming from the southern region (75%) and the remaining 25% from the Northern region.

The export of packaging paper from Vietnam reached a record of 641,000 tons, accounted for 79.2% of the total paper export and marked a growth rate of 99% over the same period. Packaging paper imports reached 1.413 million tons, accounted for 68.0% imports of all paper types and grew by 10% over the same period in 2017. Packaging paper exports is expected to reach about 1.1 – 1.3 million tons in 2019.

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