Cheng Loong Lays out $1 billion Expansion Plan in Vietnam

Taiwan’s Cheng Loong has laid out an expansion plan in Vietnam, aiming to build a one million tonne/yr greenfield mill in Ben Cat, Binh Duong province.

The facility will house two recycled containerboard machines, a duplex board unit and two tissue paper machines, representing a $1 billion total investment.

The scheme, which has a 10-year time frame, has received the all-clear from the Vietnamese government, said a Cheng Loong spokesman.

The company has already kicked off the installation of a 260,000-tonne/yr recycled containerboard machine at the Ben Cat site, whose startup is scheduled for June next year. Cheng Loong does not yet have a detailed timeline for the next stages of the packaging board expansion.

Cheng Loong has followed downstream clients - manufacturers of textiles, footwear and electronic products, among others - that relocated their factories from China to Vietnam due to the former’s soaring land and labor costs.

Besides packaging, Cheng Loong is an established tissue paper producer in Taiwan, with its own brands and marketing channels. It now aims to manufacture and market tissue products in Vietnam, in the belief that demand will grow there on the back of its improving standard of living. In its blueprint, the firm plans to build two 25,000-tonne/yr tissue machines at the facility.