Many wood manufacturers in Vietnam are shying away from pouring investment into new technology despite having the financial capacity.

Only five to ten percent of the enterprises in the wood industry seriously invest in new technology and machines to change their operation and production methods, Le Duc Hieu, project manager of Vetta Company specializing in providing woodworking machines, said at Wednesday's press conference on the 2022 Vietnam International Woodworking Industry Fair.

Many business owners have the financial capacity to purchase modern machinery or advanced software, but their biggest concerns are which technology to invest in and how to operate modern machinery to achieve the highest productivity.

“Compared to other businesses in the region, we still fall behind due to the lack of connectivity between machines, which is needed to form a smart and efficient production process,” Hieu elaborated.

“Only a few enterprises in the country have such an effective process."

Production automation, which is to replace direct laborers with machines and technology, is an increasingly popular trend, said Nguyen Chanh Phuong, vice-president of the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of Ho Chi Minh City (HAWA).

The step-by-step transition is quite easy, but it remains a challenge for businesses to connect the new machines in their production chain, Phuong continued, adding that human resources, vision, and management capacity are also important aside from financial capacity.

Vietnam's export turnover of wood and wood products reached US$11.1 billion in the first eight months of 2022, up seven percent year on year, the HAWA vice-president stated.

However, inflation and uncertainties in the global economy are expected to negatively affect the export of wood and wood products, as well as other commodities of Vietnam in general in the last few months of this year, he added.

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