Thailand’s SCG dominates Vietnam’s plastic production industry
AFTER buying Duy Tan Plastic Corp, Thailand’s Siam Cement Group (SCG) is cementing its domination of Vietnam’s plastic production industry.
Under the contract signed on February 9 via a virtual conference, Duy Tan will sell 70 per cent of its shares in five of total twenty-two subsidiary companies, including Duy Tan Plastic Manufacturing Corp and Duy Tan Long An Corp, to SCG’s SCG Packaging, Duy Tan said.
Duy Tan Plastic is a leading company in the plastic goods market in Viet Nam with revenue of 4.7 trillion dong ($204 million) last year. It has nearly 1,000 commodities units and 16,000 distribution agents across the country. The company’s annual capacity reaches 116,000 tonnes of hard plastic packaging and plastic goods.
SCG, Thailand’s largest cement producer, will buy the stakes over three years, starting from 2021. The deal takes a long time as it is based on business results, Duy Tan Plastic said.
Through the deal, SCG and Duy Tan Plastic want to create a solid foundation for a completed supply chain.
Duy Tan Plastic aims at developing hard plastic packaging products, plastic goods and expanding export markets, while the investments help SCG Packaging broaden its hard plastic packaging businesses in ASEAN, especially strengthen capacity to serve producers and consumers of fast-moving consumer goods in Vietnam.
The deal is a part of SCG’s investment plan worth 10 billion baht ($330.9 million) to extend its businesses in Vietnam that has big and growing demands in plastic packaging products.
SCG Packaging CEO Wichan Jitpukdee said the company will keep investing in Vietnam, resulting in revenue growth of over 10 per cent each year.
The plastic production industry in Vietnam has around 3,300 enterprises with total value of approximately $18 billion.
The upstream sector of this industry includes petrochemical refineries and chemical enterprises whose main activities are to convert fossil materials into raw plastic beads.
Meanwhile the downstream sector is turning raw plastic beads into plastic products. The downstream can be divided into four main segments, including plastic packaging products, plastic building materials, plastic goods and engineering plastics.
With the deal for Duy Tan Plastic’s shares, SCG is dominating Vietnam’s plastic industry, especially in plastic packaging products and plastic building materials. These two segments account around 61 per cent of the total market value.
In 2019, SCG Packaging founded Vina Kraft Paper in Binh Duong province to produce paper packaging products with total capacity of 500,000 tonnes per year.
The company continued to invest in Tin Thanh Packing JSC (BATICO) in 2015. And recently SGC bought 94 per cent of Bien Hoa Packaging JSC’s stakes, with the deal worth of 2.07 billion dong.
SCG also owns stakes in many plastic companies including Binh Minh Plastics JSC, Vietnam Construction Materials JSC, Prime Group, Viet Thai Plastchem Joint Venture Co Ltd, TPC Vina Plastic and Chemical Corp Ltd, Vietnam Chemtech Co Ltd and Minh Thai Plastic Material Co Ltd.
In June 2018, SCG signed a contract to buy 29 per cent of Viet Nam Oil and Gas Group’s (PetroVietnam) shares in Long Son Petrochemical Complex Project, raising its equity from 71 per cent to 100 per cent with total investment value of 8.5 billion baht per year.
BANGLADESH saw another day of protests on February 28 following the death of a prominent writer and government critic in jail, with police firing tear gas and rubber bullets.
Mushtaq Ahmed, 53, collapsed and died on February 25, 10 months after being arrested under Bangladesh’s Digital Security Act (DSA) for comments on Facebook criticising the government’s response to coronavirus.
AFP looks at the legislation, which has alarmed foreign governments and which rights groups say is being used to silence dissent in the country of 168 million people under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Bangladesh’s parliament passed the DSA in late 2018 after several major instances of deadly sectarian violence sparked by posts on social media, but the wording is vague and its provisions broad.
It criminalises engaging in “propaganda” against the “spirit” of the 1971 Bangladeshi war of independence, the national anthem, the flag and the nation’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of the current prime minister.
Those falling foul of the law face hefty fines and lengthy jail sentences, even life imprisonment for certain repeat offences. Arrests can be made without a warrant.
Hasina said on February 27: “We’ve built a digital Bangladesh, and now it is our duty to provide the people with digital security.”
How widely is it used?
Citing data from Bangladesh’s Cyber Crime Tribunal, Amnesty International says nearly 2,000 cases have been filed under the DSA, with journalists as particular targets.
Last year at least 10 editors of national and regional dailies and online news platforms faced legal charges under the DSA following critical reporting on leaders of the ruling Awami League party, according to Amnesty.
Others falling foul include people like Ahmed, a successful crocodile farmer who became a vociferous critic of the government. He was arrested in May along with several others including rights campaigner Didar Bhuiyan and Ahmed Kabir Kishore, a cartoonist.
According to rights group Article 19, which monitors press freedom in many countries, “freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom of the media are being severely violated under the Digital Security Act”.
Rights groups say arrests have increased since the coronavirus pandemic.
Members of Bangladesh’s minority Hindu community have also been detained and jailed under the law for hurting the religious sentiments of majority Muslims.
In September, for example, a young Hindu man was jailed for seven years under the DSA for posting comments on Facebook found to have blasphemed the Prophet Mohammed.
What else has Hasina done?
Hasina, 73, has ruled the country with a firm hand since coming to power in 2009 in a landslide election victory.
She has used her power to settle some old scores, with several army officers accused of killing her father and much of her family in 1975 executed.
At least five Islamist leaders and a senior opposition leader have also been executed for war crimes. Rights groups raised questions about the fairness of the trial.
Hasina’s main political opposition has been hobbled, with thousands of its activists behind bars on what they say are trumped-up charges.
Her ailing arch-rival Khaleda Zia was jailed for corruption charges that the opposition says are politically motivated. Last March she was let out for medical treatment.
Hasina was easily re-elected in 2014 and 2018, and both votes were clouded by allegations of irregularities.
Earlier this year an Al Jazeera documentary alleged close links between Hasina’s inner circle, the military and organised crime. The government denied the claims and a court ordered the programme removed from the internet.