According to the Nikkei Asia Review, Sumitomo provided more than half of the roughly 4 billion JPY (37 million USD) the team paid to a local fund for the stake.

With demand for container shipments growing 7 percent annually in Vietnam, Sumitomo plans to build a logistics network connecting plants to ports for seamless export of locally produced goods, the newspaper reported.

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Photo: ndh.vn

It said Gemadept owns six ports in Vietnam, and handled 1.7 million containers for an over 10 percent market share. Meanwhile, Sumitomo is operating three industrial parks in Hanoi’s suburbs, and owning a logistics unit in the Southeast Asian country.

Sumitomo will develop a smartphone app that will enable truck drivers to reserve loading processes at ports and electronically handle other paperwork.

Currently at Hai Phong port, drivers have to wait one to two hours for cargo to be loaded onto ships. Suzuyo has shortened such wait times to an average 12 minutes in Japan, and plans to use the expertise in Vietnam.

About 14 million container equivalents of goods are shipped in and out of Vietnam annually. With a growth rate of 7 percent, the number is expected to reach 23 million by 2025.

"With the US-China trade war, the number of containers handled will increase further," a Sumitomo source was quoted as saying by Asia Nikkei Review.

Source: VNA