Foreign-invested paint companies in Vietnam are putting pressure on local manufacturers.
The Vietnam Paint and Ink Association said the country has an annualtotal output of 250 million litres of paint, including 180 millionlitres of decorative paint.
Chalermsak Pimolsri,marketing director of the foreign-invested Four Oranges Paint Company,said the average consumption was 1.5 litres of paint per head per yearin Vietnam , much lower than the four litres a year in Thailand andseven litres in developed countries.
Foreign-invested paint makers already hold 65 percent of the localmarket and have advantages with trade marks, finance and diversificationof products, he said.
Another foreign-investedpaint firm, Jotun VietnamCo Ltd, has expanded its factory and increasecapacity to 25 million litres of paint per year.
Director of AkzoNobel Paints Vietnam, David Teng, said the company hadinvested 13 million EUR (17.3 million USD) to develop a factory insouthern Binh Duong province.
The association saidVietnam has about 600 paint companies, including 30 foreign-investedfirms holding the lion's share of the market. Local paint companiesproduce lower quality paint.
However, some domestic paint is becoming competitive, including Kova, Dong Tam, Tison, Alphanam and Hoa Binh.
The local firms mainly sell their products in provinces while the foreign firms dominate the large cities.
Hoang Van Hung, director of Nero Paint Co Ltd, said domestic companiesmust diversify their products to increase market share.
Local companies also seem to have an edge in non-decorative paints,including the Hoa Binh Paint Company's paints for coastal environments -and waterproofing, heat and nano paints produced by the Kova Company.
Nguyen Thi Hoe, chairwoman of Kova Group, said her firm enjoys stabledevelopment on the local market but aims to develop exports. It alreadysells to Singapore and Indonesia.-VNA