Australian wool producers show interest in northern Vietnam investments

Members of the Wool Producers Australia association are willing to relocate some of their investments to Vietnam, particularly the northern province of Nam Dinh.

A association delegation expressed their willingness at a Monday meeting with the provincial authorities.

The delegation affirmed that Australia was currently the world’s biggest wool producer with a global network of consumers. A wool factory of the smallest scale, requiring an investment of around $40 million, would have an annual output of 20 tons, the delegation said.

Investments in Vietnam would be hi-tech and adhere to rigorous environmental protection requirements similar to those in Australia, delegation members said. Investments in Vietnam would expand their market, including supply for apparel firms in Nam Dinh, they added.

They also sought information about the province’s aid and incentives for the sector.

Nam Dinh Vice Chairman Tran Anh Dung responded that the province was ready to welcome investments from Australia amidst the ongoing trend of investment diversification.

Nam Dinh has a 500-hectare Rang Dong Textile Industrial Park (Aurora IP) that particularly serves the textiles sector and investments in the park will benefit from preferential policies, he added.

Footwear and apparel-textiles are major products of Vietnam’s export-driven economy. Vietnam posted export revenues of $227.71 billion, down 10% year-on-year, in the first eight months of this year, according to the General Statistics Office. The apparel and textile sector was the fourth-biggest earner with $22.35 billion, down 15% year-on-year.

Registered foreign direct investment (FDI) capital in Vietnam rose 8.2% year-on-year to nearly $18.15 billion in the year to August 20, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment. Nam Dinh’s figure was $272.3 million, including $172.7 million in capital for new projects, $4.5 million in additional capital for existing projects, and $95.1 million in capital contributions for stake acquisitions.

Nam Dinh has attracted several major FDI projects so far this year. In May, it granted an investment certificate for Apple supplier Quanta Computer to build a $120 million factory in the northern province, the giant's first in Vietnam and its ninth worldwide. The plant, located in My Thuan Industrial Park, is set to manufacture 1.3 million laptop and desktop computers in 2024, 2.6 million in 2025, 3.6 million in 2026, four million in 2027, and 4.5 million in 2028.

In August, Taiwan's housewares maker JiaWei said it would invest $100 million in building a plant in Nam Dinh province. Factory construction could begin as early as September, it said. In the same month, Singapore’s Sanbang PTE. Ltd. was given an investment license for a $28.7 million fiber project in Nam Dinh province. The 10.3-hectare project is located at the textile-specialized Aurora Industrial Park. The investor is set to complete all legal procedures to kick off construction in Q1/2024, complete it in Q3/2025 and begin official production the following quarter.

In August, Singaporean polymer food packaging firm Sunrise Material and Nam Dinh-based Dai Phong JSC, a local construction firm, signed an agreement for building a $100-million factory in the province.