Marine route turns Vietnam into Southeast Asia’s transport hub

Moscow (VNA) – A direct marine freight route between Vietnam and Russia’s Vladivostok began operating last year, turning local ports into a transport hub facilitating the flow of goods between Southeast Asian countries and the Russian Far East’s port city.

In an interview with the Vietnam News Agency on the sidelines of the ongoing 8th East Asia Economic Forum (EEF 2023) in Vladivostok, German Maslov, Vice President of Liner and Logistic division at the FESCO Transportation Group – which runs the sea route, said initially, only one ship was used for the marine link. Since July this year, there have been three container vessels put into operation with a frequency of one trip per week.

As a result, the transport time from ports in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City and Hai Phong to Vladivostok or vice versa has been reduced from 10-12 days to 7-8 days. The route has so far seen around 20,000 TEUs of goods shipped with a balanced two-way transport volume. Out of these 20,000 TEUs, approximately 2,000 TEUs were containers transferred from Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and others, via Vietnam.

Maslov said FESCO has established an office in Vietnam to streamline and expedite cargo transport activities for Vietnamese businesses./.