Plastics firms urged to form cluster

Plastic producers and investors have been urged to join a plastic industry cluster in the Dung Quat Economic Zone.

The Dung Quat Economic Zone Authority said the planned cluster would have advantages of material supply and convenient transport.

Authority management board deputy director Le Van Dung said the linchpin of the zone was the Dung Quat Polypropylene Plant which had an annual capacity of 150,000 tonnes.

Also, waterways and air transport from Dung Quat were convenient thanks to the Gemadept Dung Quat Port and the Chu Lai Airport, Dung said.

HCM City Plastic Association chairman Tran Cong Hoang Quoc Trang said the authority’s zone plan would suit plastic producers who were planning to move out of the city to meet the municipal environmental protection target.

Relocating producers were seeking new positions close to material sources with easy access to transport, Trang said.

Dung said the authority, together with PV Building, a subsidiary of the Dung Quat Oil Refinery, was seeking partners to invest in a project to produce plastic products using the refinery’s polypropylene resin.

The authority expected the 20ha plant, which would churn out plastic products for homes, high-tech use and construction, would attract other plastic producers to the zone.

Dung said the authority planned to give incentives on land, labour training and infrastructure development to producers in the zone.

The plastic association said the nation’s plastic industry had grown by an average 15-20 per cent a year for the past decade.

Trang said, however, its competitiveness had remained restricted due mainly to an 80 per cent dependence on imported material.

A domestic material supply source would be a major competitive advantage for plastic producers in the Dung Quat zone, Trang said.

The 14-year-old zone was one of the first and most successful in the country with a development growth rate of 18.53 per cent and an average industrial output of 53.6 per cent, he said.

In the zone priorities would be given to an oil refinery and petrochemical plant, a thermo-power plant, oil and gas hub, support industry projects, engineering, high technical agricultural projects and infrastructure services. — VNS

Tags: Vietnam plastics industry