The shipbuilding industry is one of the main priority sectors for the Government, says Nguyen Ngoc Hue, deputy director of the Viet Nam Maritime Administration. Most recently, the Government made US$750 million available for the sector in order to finance its development into a modern industry that can meet future international quality demands.
Viet Nam has more than 100 ports. Sixty five per cent of the nation's total cargo flow through the south of Viet Nam, making HCM City an important location as a major business centre of Viet Nam.
The Viet Nam National Shipping Lines, the largest shipping firm in Viet Nam, has planned to raise the loading capacity of its shipping fleet to 2.46 million deadweight tonnes (DWT) by 2010. They will invest more than $500 million into infrastructure works and more than $88 million into buying new equipment and developing services.
The Government has also decided to make shipbuilding a key export industry through the Shipbuilding Industry Development Programme for 2002-2010. It aims to have ship exports reaching a value of $5 billion by 2010 and extending the shipbuilding capacity to container ships of 1500 TEU, cargo ships of 100,000 tonnes and oil tankers of 100,000 tonnes. Viet Nam aims to be the forth largest shipbuilder during the next decade.
Officials of the Viet Nam Maritime Administration have said seaports last year handled more than 246 million tonnes of import and export cargo from domestic and foreign vessels, an increase of 61.03 per cent compared with 2007.
Of the 88,620 vessels received by domestic ports, half were from other countries. In the first two months of this year, despite the negative impacts of the global economic crisis, the volume of cargo that has passed through seaports across the nation reached 28.8 million tonnes, an increase of 35 per cent from the same period last year.
Hue says that to meet the increasing demand for sea transportation, the marine navigation sector needs to develop its infrastructure.
He says Viet Nam's sea transportation costs remain high due to the lack of deep sea ports and poor logistics service systems for existing ports. Deep seaports will be able to accommodate large vessels of global shipping companies, and will reduce sea freight costs.
Thai Van Vinh from the Australian Maritime College in Tasmania, says the preference for larger ships in the global sea transport sector means Viet Nam is missing out on business. It takes a lot longer to unload or load several tonnes of cargo at a Vietnamese port than it does at other ports in the region.
"As a result, exporters and importers must use smaller containers for their goods if they pass through Viet Nam, then reload them at other regional ports, often in Singapore," says Vinh.
According to the Viet Nam Maritime Administration, about 90 per cent of the nation's imports and exports travel by sea through the national port system. In addition, during recent years there has been a significant increase in goods travelling through the nation's seaports, from 91.4 million tonnes in 2001 to 181 million tonnes in 2007, an increase of 97 per cent across six years.
Vinh estimates that the volume of goods will reach 218 million tonnes next year, and double that by 2015, before reaching about 854 million tonnes by 2020.
Vinh says Cai Lan Deep Sea Port, the first ever in northern Viet Nam, can only receive ships of a maximum 5,000 TEUs while since 2003 ships of 8,000 TEUs have been used around the world. Furthermore, three years ago 11,000 TEUs ships began to service the Asia - Europe cargo route.
According to the Viet Nam Maritime Administrations data, Viet Nam has 160 harbours and 300 quays, adding up to about 36km of waterside access. The administration plans to increase that figure by 2km of waterside access each year.
However the deputy director of the administration says most of the harbours cannot receive ships of more than 50,000 DWT, adding that the number of quays that can receive 20,000-50,000 DWT, accounts for 8.8 per cent while the quays receiving ships of less than 10,000 DWT accounts for 46.5 per cent.
Hue says there is nowhere to go for ships with a capacity of 80,000DWT or more.
In addition, some of the major ports are located in the crowded residential zones that suffer from traffic jams, so these ports are constrained to operating at night and at lower capacity, according to Hue.
The loading work is mostly done with simple cranes and equipment, with the exception of work at the ports of Chua Ve, Tien Sa, Tan Cang, VIC, Ben Nghe and Tan Thuan.
Hue says the industry also needs to improve seaport management mechanisms and offer incentives, including simplifying investment procedures and preferential tariffs, to encourage private and foreign companies to invest in the marine sector.
Other measures to develop the marine navigation sector include proper planning and upgrading of public infrastructure such as waterways, and road and rail networks to the seaports.
Duong Tien Dung, from the Viet Nam Maritime Administration, says Viet Nam has a target to improve and build 10 key ports and the international Van Phong Port by 2020 to meet rising demand.
