Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam’s ports and shipping industry is more than sufficient to meetthe country’s demand in import-export activities.
That is the responsefrom the Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) to a Bloomberg reportclaiming container shipping may need to grow at almost twice the pace of thelast decade, which was reported at 10-12 percent annually, to keep up with new,surging demand.
Bloomberg alsoclaimed the country is facing a 4 billion USD shortfall indeveloping its ports with no major projects nearing completion in the nearfuture. Overcoming such an issue can prove to be a daunting task as the casesof early developers such as Japan and the Republic of Koreahave shown.
A high-rankingVinalines official told the Vietnam News Agency the inauguration of LachHuyen deepwater port in northern port HaiPhong city has significantly increased northern region’sshipping capacity. In the southern region, port complex Cai Mep-Thi Vaiin Ba Ria-VungTau province is and willbe able to meet with the country’s rising demand in years to come.
“Some 18 million TEUof goods - twenty-foot equivalent unit for the capacity of container ships andcontainer terminals - passed through Vietnamese ports every year,” said theVinalines official.
“We anticipated thisfigure to reach 30-40 million in 2030. By that time, the country must have anumber of additional ports built in both the northern and the southernregions.”
The Vietnamese fleetwhich comprises 39 ships, however, only accounted for 1.2-1.3 million TEU orjust over 7 percent. Establishing new shipping lines is both extremelydifficult and expensive and usually requires both extensive knowledge andfinancial resources, requirements that can only be met by a handful of largeshipping companies.
“In order to developour own lines and to give domestic companies incentives to invest in growingtheir fleets, the country must come up with a vision for the shipping industryand support policies now,” said the official.
In addition,Vietnamese shipping companies must work to improve technical capacity and joinforces with alliances in the global shipping industry.
According to theVietnam Maritime Administration, the country has more than 1,500 ships with atotal capacity of 7.8 billion tonnes, ranking 4th in ASEAN and 30th in theglobal fleet ranking. With an average age of 15.6 years old, the Vietnamesefleet has seen rapid growth in recent years from 19 ships in 2013 to 39 shipsthis year.
The fleet has carriedmore than 81 million tonnes of goods this year, a 16 percent increaseyear-on-year, meeting the demand of domestic goods transport. So far itsinternational lines are mostly to ports in China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and ASEAN countries due to modest size andlimited financial capacity.
There are some 281ports operating across the country with a total capacity of 550 million tonnesper year. Major ports in key logistics region including HaiPhong city, Ba Ria-VungTau and HCM City have seen a significant upgrade ininfrastructure to be able to receive ships with up to 30,000 DWT (Deadweighttonnage). At the same time, central region’s ports in Da Nangand Cam Ranh have seen fast-growth in recent years, according to a report onlogistics by the administration.
The report, however,pointed out a number of shortcomings and limitations that have been hinderinggrowth. As of now, Hai Phong portis the only one that has been connected to the national railway. Poorinfrastructure on both national road and waterway system has resulted in timewasted and increased logistics cost for shipping companies./.
