HANOI, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam imported over 3.5 million tons of plastic worth nearly 5.8 billion U.S. dollars in the first eight months of this year, seeing respective year-on-year rises of 7.2 percent and 17.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the country spent over 3.8 billion U.S. dollars importing plastic products, up 10.6 percent, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade on Tuesday.

Between January and August, Vietnam earned nearly 2 billion U.S. dollar from exporting plastic products, up 18.7 percent year-on-year.

Last year, Vietnam imported 4.9 million tons of plastic totaling 7.3 billion U.S. dollars, up 8.1 percent and 16.8 percent, respectively. Its biggest import market was Saudi Arabia, which shipped 956,100 tons of plastic valued at 1.1 billion U.S. dollars to Vietnam.