Shipping industry adequate to meet rising demand: Vinalines
Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam’s ports and shipping industry is more than sufficient to meet
the country’s demand in import-export activities.
That is the response
from the Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) to a Bloomberg report
claiming container shipping may need to grow at almost twice the pace of the
last decade, which was reported at 10-12 percent annually, to keep up with new,
surging demand.
Bloomberg also
claimed the country is facing a 4 billion USD shortfall in
developing its ports with no major projects nearing completion in the near
future. Overcoming such an issue can prove to be a daunting task as the cases
of early developers such as Japan and the Republic of Korea
have shown.
A high-ranking
Vinalines official told the Vietnam News Agency the inauguration of Lach
Huyen deepwater port in northern port Hai
Phong city has significantly increased northern region’s
shipping capacity. In the southern region, port complex Cai Mep-Thi Vai
in Ba Ria-Vung
Tau province is and will
be able to meet with the country’s rising demand in years to come.
“Some 18 million TEU
of goods - twenty-foot equivalent unit for the capacity of container ships and
container terminals - passed through Vietnamese ports every year,” said the
Vinalines official.
“We anticipated this
figure to reach 30-40 million in 2030. By that time, the country must have a
number of additional ports built in both the northern and the southern
regions.”
The Vietnamese fleet
which comprises 39 ships, however, only accounted for 1.2-1.3 million TEU or
just over 7 percent. Establishing new shipping lines is both extremely
difficult and expensive and usually requires both extensive knowledge and
financial resources, requirements that can only be met by a handful of large
shipping companies.
“In order to develop
our own lines and to give domestic companies incentives to invest in growing
their fleets, the country must come up with a vision for the shipping industry
and support policies now,” said the official.
In addition,
Vietnamese shipping companies must work to improve technical capacity and join
forces with alliances in the global shipping industry.
According to the
Vietnam Maritime Administration, the country has more than 1,500 ships with a
total capacity of 7.8 billion tonnes, ranking 4th in ASEAN and 30th in the
global fleet ranking. With an average age of 15.6 years old, the Vietnamese
fleet has seen rapid growth in recent years from 19 ships in 2013 to 39 ships
this year.
The fleet has carried
more than 81 million tonnes of goods this year, a 16 percent increase
year-on-year, meeting the demand of domestic goods transport. So far its
international lines are mostly to ports in China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and ASEAN countries due to modest size and
limited financial capacity.
There are some 281
ports operating across the country with a total capacity of 550 million tonnes
per year. Major ports in key logistics region including Hai
Phong city, Ba Ria-Vung
Tau and HCM City have seen a significant upgrade in
infrastructure to be able to receive ships with up to 30,000 DWT (Deadweight
tonnage). At the same time, central region’s ports in Da Nang
and Cam Ranh have seen fast-growth in recent years, according to a report on
logistics by the administration.
The report, however,
pointed out a number of shortcomings and limitations that have been hindering
growth. As of now, Hai Phong port
is the only one that has been connected to the national railway. Poor
infrastructure on both national road and waterway system has resulted in time
wasted and increased logistics cost for shipping companies./.