Although the sector earned US$2.405 billion from exports last year, a rise of 12.4% compared to the previous year it spent US$5.949 billion on importing 3.82 million tons of plastic materials for domestic production.

Imports of three main plastics – PE, PP and PVC plunged 20%, 25% and 21% respectively compared to 2014 due to sharp oil price drops.

Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, China and Singapore are Vietnam’s major plastic suppliers, of which China accounted for 8% of total import value.

The VPA said PE and PP remained two major import materials for the plastics sector and made up 53.45% of total plastics import value.