"Ourprofit from the European market in the first half of this year fell by10 percent," said director of a plastic company in Hanoi.
Hesaid that his company's European partners asked them to reduce theirprice but he couldn't due to the high cost of raw materials. Theirpartners then reduced orders from 5,000 tonnes of plastics to 3,000tonnes, he added.
A representative of Nam Thai Son Import -Export Joint Stock Company, said that the downtrend of the euro affectedhis company because the company signed contracts with partners when oneeuro exchanged for 1.3 USD. At present, the exchange is around 1.1 USD,causing big losses for importers who are now rescheduling orders orchanging to other commodities, the representative added.
Theonline newspaper Vnexpress quotes Tran Viet Anh, Deputy Chairman of theHCM City Rubber – Plastic Manufacturers Association, saying that, besidethe loss from declining orders, enterprises now have to facecompetitiveness from more local suppliers in Europe.
European plastic producers might be able to provide products at a competitive price since the euro is low.
Toovercome the new challenges, the chairman recommended Vietnameseenterprises, apart from expanding to other markets or their marketshare, seek cheaper materials and make changes in product structuring tolower the price for the European market, which is vital to Vietnam'splastic industry.
Estimates for export turnover in the plasticindustry are over 1 billion USD for the first half of the year.According to the association, the European market accounted for 60 - 70percent.
The industry saw a year-on-year increase of 10.3 percentas turnover hit 4.2 billion USD for the first half of the year. Theindustry earned 9 billion USD last year.
In the larger picture,growth also depends on how Vietnam competes with China, Japan and ASEANcountries. Exports to the European market fell across the East and SouthEast Asia region.-VNA