By Nguyen Nam - The Saigon Times Daily

HCMC – The HCMC-based Saigon Paper Corporation, or SGP, is pressing on with a major factory project in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau despite troubled times, said the chairman of the corporation.

Cao Tien Vi told the Daily last Friday that the factory at My Xuan A Industrial Park would need total investment capital of some US$70 million and be able to turn out 30,000 tons of paper a year when operational by 2010.

The firm already has a paper mill in the same industrial park in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province with total annual capacity of some 18,000 tons.

Vi, who is also a member of the Vietnam Pulp and Paper Association, said many companies in the country’s paper industry, including his, were scaling down production of industrial paper for export due to the global slump and concentrating on items for the domestic market such as facial and toilet tissue paper, napkins, and paper cups.

The paper industry downturn has impacted on demand for scrap paper, which has in turn caused many collectors of waste paper to quit the job. The industry now recycles a mere 50% of waste paper, far lower than in many other countries.

The local price of waste paper is only VND1,700 kg, which Vi said is barely enough to cover cost. Meanwhile, the import price of scrap paper is around VND2,400 per kg thanks to its better quality than the local one.

The country’s target is to reach a total annual output capacity of over one million tons of paper to meet some 85%of domestic demand by 2010.