Plastic exports grew by 17.3 percent to over 3 billion USD in 2017 and are expected to expand by 12-15 percent this year, according to the Vietnam Plastic Association (VPA).

 

Japan and the United States remained Vietnam’s major buyers last year while China, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar are emerging as promising markets for made-in-Vietnam plastics, said VPA President Ho Duc Lam.

 

The US’s continued anti-dumping duty imposed on PE bag imports from Vietnam has not held back domestic plastic producers as they have shifted their eyes to new markets, Lam noted.

 

Japan has topped importers of Vietnamese plastic products whose import values rose by an annual average rate of 20-25 percent. The strong growth of exports to Japan has much lessened the negative impacts of the US’s anti-dumping tariff on the plastic industry, he added.

 

Vietnam has ranked sixth among plastic exporters to Japan, a market with strict requirements on product quality. Vietnamese plastic manufacturers are putting more efforts to improve their products’ quality and design and ramp up trade promotion to gain a stronger foothold in the market.

 

Many producers are seeking to gain access to the EU market which have high demands for plastic products, particularly plastic pipes, and do not impose anti-dumping duties, ranging from 8-30 percent, on Vietnam’s plastics like other Asian countries.-VNA