HANOI, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam spent nearly 3.7 billion U.S. dollars importing roughly 2.5 million tons of plastic in the first five months of this year, posting respective year-on-year rises of 2.4 percent and 12.8 percent.
Meanwhile, the country poured nearly 2.6 billion U.S. dollars into importing plastic products, up 11.3 percent, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs on Wednesday.
Between January and May, Vietnam's largest suppliers of plastic and plastics products included China, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Thailand.
In the five-month period, Vietnam earned approximately 1.4 billion U.S. dollars from exporting plastic products, posting a year-on-year surge of 15.9 percent.
In 2018, the country imported roughly 5.6 million tons of plastic totaling 9.1 billion U.S. dollars, up 11.9 percent and up 20 percent, respectively. Each Vietnamese person consumed 3.8 kg of plastic in 1990, and 41 kg of the product in 2015, according to the Vietnam Plastics Association.
According to Mordor Intelligence, an India-based market research firm, Vietnam's plastic market is likely to post a compounded annual growth rate of more than 6.6 percent in the 2018-2023 period.
