(VEN) – Major opportunities are opening up for Vietnam’s paper industry as the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) nears its establishment by 2015. Of course, challenges are also hard as a result of a fiercer competition between paper companies.
Modern printing paper production technology is introduced to visitors According to the Vietnam Pulp and Paper Association (VPPA), the paper industry has experienced difficulties over the past two years such as under-capacity production and increased production costs. Nevertheless, it has continued investing intensively, gradually regained momentum, and been able to meet 80 percent of domestic demand for pulp.
However, Vietnam’s paper industry is facing major challenges including a capacity expansion race and paper anti-dumping duties from the US and Canada. Following the free trade agreement between ASEAN countries and India, Japan, China, Korea, Australia and New Zealand, which will take effect in 2015 and the Agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are signed; Vietnam’s paper industry will face fiercer competition when applying zero paper export tariffs.
At a forum to connect ASEAN paper industries with AEC recently held in Hanoi, CEO of Association of Indonesian Pulp and Paper Liana Bratasida introduced her experience in developing the Indonesian paper industry via a green and clean model deployed in replanting 660ha of forest, planning Indonesian paper material areas, and licensing paper production. “It’s time to replace the use of coal and electricity in paper production with environmentally friendly biomass energy and liquefied petroleum gases,” she said.
From the results of the survey of energy in paper mills in Vietnam, General Director of India-based Forbes Marshall Datta Kuvalekar said “The current key issue with Vietnamese paper mills is how to make efficient use of energies as energy-saving opportunities still exist in these mills, while energy costs often account for 25 percent of the cost of paper production.”/.
By Phuong Tu
Đăng ký: VietNam News