Dutch firm vidaXL seeks to invest $50 mln in Vietnam wood factory

Netherlands-based furniture manufacturer vidaXL plans to invest $50 million in building a wood processing complex in the central province of Quang Tri.

At a Tuesday meeting with provincial authorities, vidaXL CEO and co-founder Gerjan den Hartog said the 50-hectare facility, with an annual capacity of 400,000-500,000 tons of acacia wood, can employ 3,000-4,000 people.

The firm aims to start construction in 2023 and complete in 12 months if a suitable location is provided.

Welcoming the Dutch company's proposal, Quang Tri Vice Chairman Ha Sy Dong highlighted the province’s advantages, including the annual exploitation of one million cubic meters of wood from planted forest, abundant workforce, and land banks.

Quang Tri currently has 120,000 hectares of planted forest, equivalent to five million cubic meters of wood meeting Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards.

Dong added that as Quang Tri has no major investors in wood processing for furniture yet, the province would provide the best conditions for the company to study and implement the project.

He suggested the VSIP Quang Tri Industrial Park as a suitable location with incentives for setting up shop.

Vietnam earned over $1.68 billion from exporting wood and wooden products in the first two months of this year, down 31.8% year-on-year, according to customs data. The biggest export markets were the U.S. with $784.61 million, Japan with $270.23 million, and China with $248.3 million.

Quang Tri province is attracting investments in various sectors. Last month, provincial authorities agreed in-principle with a proposal to invest in a bonded warehouse for fuel by a joint venture of firms from Laos, Vietnam, and the U.S.

The joint venture, featuring Laos' Sun Commercial Import-Export and Service Company Limited, Vietnam's BFA Trading Service Production Company Limited, and the U.S.'s Green Power Global LCC, introduced their 100-hectare oil refinery plant in Laos and urged Quang Tri province to assist it in determining a suitable location for fuel storage.

Leading Vietnamese automaker Thaco plans to invest in its first auto sales center in Quang Tri with a goal of selling 1,000 vehicles of different kinds per year. The project, also Thaco's first in Quang Tri, has a total investment of VND96 billion ($4.1 million) and will cover an area of 19,401 square meters, with the aim of selling 1,000 vehicles per year and providing maintenance for a further 1,000.

In October 2022, Vietnamese investors Thang Long Investment Group and B.J Korea Quang Tri proposed to develop two tourism projects worth a total VND7,750 billion ($312 million) in the central province.

In September 2022, Quang Tri authorities said they were considering the establishment of a massive VND175,600 billion ($7.46 billion) green hydrogen center that will turn the central province into a renewable energy hub. The center will be built in Southeast Quang Tri Economic Zone.