A lot of leasing groups in the world are teaming up with Vietnamese enterprises to build seaports in the southern key economic zone. The belt of land along Cai Mep-Thi Vai River, Dong Nai, Hiep Phuoc, Nha Be, Long Tau and Soai Rap is becoming “golden” land and attracting billions of dollars worth of investment.

Ports under construction

On May 28, the construction of the Cai Mep international port, developed by the joint venture of Saigon Port and Danish Maersk, was kicked off. It is estimated that $186mil will be spent to build the port, which will have the capacity of 1mil containers a year when operational.

Prior to that, in October 2007, the construction of SP-PSA international port also started. In one year, the container port run by SSIT will be put into operation.

Alex Parkman, General Director of SSIT, said that the current lack of ports in the southern region will be settled in some more years, when the new ports become operational, as the ports all have high capacities and modern technologies.

According to the Ministry of Transport, by the end of 2007, Ba Ria-Vung Tau province had 13 operational ports, but it will develop 25 new ports. Similarly, Dong Nai province with 15 current port wharfs is planning to develop three new ports.

HCM City looks to the sea

HCM City authorities have decided to reserve the Cat Lai-Hiep Phuoc area for port development. Tan Cang, which was located next to the Saigon Bridge, has been relocated to Cat Lai, and accounts for 50% of the country’s container loading capacity. Saigon Port in Hiep Phuoc is planning to invest $160mil to be upgraded and attain the loading capacity of 7.5mil tonnes.

In Hiep Phuoc Industrial Zone, several international seaport groups, including DP World and Tan Thuan Industrial Development Group, have invested more than $300mil to build SPCT, a container port, which is expected to have the capacity of 1.5mil containers and become operational in early 2009.

In order to prepare for the seaport system development, HCM City has asked and got approval from the Ministry of Transport to dredge Soai Rap River to get the water depth of 7m for the first period and 11m for the second, which will make it capable of receiving ships of 30-50,000 tonnes. The ships that go the Soai Rap passage to dock at SPCT port will be able to save half of the time it would have taken them to travel the Long Tau passage. Moreover, the fact that the city’s ports can receive ships of bigger than 50,000 tonnes will help reduce transport costs.

Demand double within three years

At the conference on ASEAN’s seaports held recently in HCM City, participants all said that the volume of commodities going through Vietnam’s ports would increase by two-fold as of 2010 compared to now. The sharp increase of 125% in 2008 has also been forecast.

According to Drewry, a prestigious UK-based consultancy firm, the number of export containers passing through Vietnam’s ports will exceed 6.2mil in 2010, while the figure was 3.3mil in 2007. The figures will be over 4mil containers in 2008 (the predicted level was 3.9mil), and 15.5mil in 2015.

Experts don’t think that the construction of a massive number of ports will cause an excess of seaports and leave seaports idle. They say that the ports will not become operational at the same time, but one by one in the period from 2009 to 2014. The biggest worry now of seaport developers is the poor roads linking to the ports.

Source: VNN