According to preliminary statistics of General Department of Customs, in the first 8 months of 2024, the whole country imported 1.64 million tonnes of paper of all kinds, equivalent to nearly 1.45 billion USD, with an average price of 885.3 USD/tonne, up 17% in volume, up 11.9% in turnover but down 4.4% in price compared to the first 8 months of 2023.
In August 2024 alone, paper imports decreased by 4.7% in volume and 4.4% in value compared to the previous month, reaching 222,422 tonnes, equivalent to 195.76 million USD; compared to the same month in 2023, they increased by 27% in volume and 21.3% in value. Import price of all kinds of paper in August 2024 averaged 880 USD/tonne, up 0.4% compared to the previous month but down 4.5% compared to August 2023. China, Korea, Indonesia, and Japan are major markets supplying all kinds of paper to Vietnam; Of which, imports from China were 551,649 tonnes, equivalent to 530.82 million USD, priced at 962.2 USD/tonne, up 25.9% in volume, up 24% in turnover but down 1.5% in price compared to the first 8 months of 2023, accounting for 33.7% of total volume of all kinds of imported paper nationwide and accounting for 36.7% of total turnover.
Imports from Indonesia were 201,946 tonnes, equivalent to 170.84 million USD, with an import price of 846 USD/tonne, down 4.1% in volume, down 11% in turnover and down 7.2% in price compared to the same period last year, accounting for over 12.4% in total volume and 11.8% in total import turnover of all kinds of paper nationwide.
Imports from South Korea were 199,416 tonnes worth 170.6 million USD, priced at 855.5 USD/tonne, down 1.4% in volume, but up 4.6% in value and 6.1% in price compared to the same period in 2023, accounting for 12.2% of total volume and 11.8% of total value.
Imports from Japan increased by 34.4% in volume, up 25.9% in value but down 6.4% in price compared to the same period in 2023, reaching 191,079 tonnes, equivalent to 164.22 million USD, accounting for over 11% of total volume and total value.
Currently, Vietnam has about 500 enterprises operating in the paper industry and the number of enterprises belonging to Vietnam Pulp and Paper Association (VPPA) is only 130 units but accounts for 90% of the industry's capacity.
Vietnam has a lot of potential to develop the paper industry. Specifically, average paper consumption per capita in Vietnam is about 44 kg/person, demand for packaging paper for domestic consumption and export products has a large growth rate (paper demand increases by 8-10%/year, of which packaging paper demand increases by about 15%/year).

Source: Vitic/ congthuong.vn