POLYSTAR Emerges in Vietnam's Film Sector

[POLYSTAR's blown film machines operating in the plant of a Vietnamese producer]

Vietnam’s plastics industry has grown significantly in the past 5 years, thanks to the many unique advantages that the country has. The ability to produce lower-cost, yet good-quality plastic products, is ideal for export markets such as the US, Japan, Europe, Australia, and Cambodia. The local market demand is also increasing in sectors such as live seafood packaging, and industrial and agricultural film, in a country with a large population of nearly 100 million.

Since 2016, POLYSTAR has already been working with 42 producers in Vietnam and has installed 187 sets of blown film extruders for various applications such as general packaging (garbage bags, vegetable and fruit bags, and shopping bags), seafood packaging, and industrial packaging.

Although many of the POLYSTAR blown film machines installed are simply standard one-layer machines, Vietnamese producers have found major differences in many areas compared to their existing machines (mostly Chinese and locally made): enhanced film quality, higher output capacity, lower power consumption, and better thickness variation control. The upgrade in the quality of the end products (films and bags) has helped the producers to achieve a competitive advantage in the market. The improvement in efficiency reduces production costs and gives them the advantage to grow and expand each year.

Another bag producer located in Ho Chi Minh City, Tam Sao, has been expanding from 300 to 800 tonnes per month, thanks to its ability to produce good quality yet low-cost plastic bags, which are now exported to Europe, Thailand, and Cambodia.

“Our goal is to expand to 1,500 tonnes per month, and we rely heavily on POLYSTAR blown film extruders to stay competitive in the market,” according to Mr. Ho, the owner of the company. Tam Sao has replaced all of its Chinese-made blown film machines step by step with POLYSTAR extruders since early 2016. “We were surprised that a simple machine can make such a big difference in operation. “To be honest, we had doubts, in the beginning, to invest in more expensive machines when we saw the price, as the initial investment on machines was more than doubled from our previous machine suppliers,” but we are so happy afterward that we made the right decision 4 years ago,” Mr. Ho adds.

Speaking about his key to success and fast growth during an onsite visit in 2019, Mr. Ho said he calculated the overall operation costs carefully and found out that investing in better machines is actually more cost-saving. 

A fifteen-year-old company, Minh Huy Long, who recently completed its new factory putting only POLYSTAR machines, says that simple and stable operation is the main reason why he has chosen POLYSTAR as his long-term partner for expansion. “Our operators love to work with the POLYSTAR blown film extruders, and so do I,” said Mr. Bai, the owner of the company. Mr. Bai has been working with machines since decades ago when he was just a technical operator.

The company’s past experience with other machines had it constantly going back and adjusting the settings as the production was not as stable. “More production waste was generated, and our operators could not manage multiple machines at one time. With the POLYSTAR machines, they can just start, sit back, relax, and watch. The POLYSTAR machines are always the first ones they start in the early morning, so they can go work on other machines after that,” Mr. Bai said.

The stability of the blown film machines also ensures the product stability of other machines involved in the production process, such as bag-making and printing machines. The even thickness control on the POLYSTAR extruders makes sure that the film rolls produced are well-prepared for the process that follows – it makes the bag-making/converting and printing process much easier. “The bag-making machines can seal better, and we have fewer defective products as a result,” Mr. Bai added

Meeting 100% Export Target

The public-listed company located in Dong Nai province, which has invested in more than 30 sets of POLYSTAR since 2016, has designed its new factories for 100% export purposes. It focuses on various products including draw tape garbage bags, star-sealed, bag-on-roll, T-shirts, and shopping bags, exporting 100% to Europe, Australia, and the US.

“We are very proud to show our international buyers the machines when they visit our factory,” said Ms. Thao, marketing manager of the draw-tape garbage bag producer, “POLYSTAR is a global brand that is also well known in the countries where we export our products to. During the factory tours, our customers recognize that we have invested in quality machines, this helps them understand our commitment to product quality and why we should be their valuable long-term partner and supplier,” she added.

“The machines cover a wide range of products that we need to produce,” said Mr. Su, technical director of the factories dedicated for export products, “HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE, virgin, recycled or CaCO3, you name it. We use only POLYSTAR extruders for our export products because it produces the quality our customers need,” he explained.

New Standards, New Thinking

The director of Vipaco, a well-known film producer located in Hanoi who started using POLYSTAR in 2016, has witnessed a change in the market. “In the past, you could find maybe one or two companies using machines from Taiwan in the bag production market. Now you see Polystar everywhere in Vietnam. In a way, POLYSTAR has changed the entire market and industry in Vietnam, setting new standards for standard machines,” said Mr. Tuan, who focuses on export markets for Japan and the US.

As more Vietnamese producers begin to understand the benefits of investing more in quality machines, POLYSTAR is set to meet their expectations.