"The Vietnam Maritime Administration (VMA) needs to propose the prime minister stop financially feeding seaports built in areas with low demand to help key seaports fill up with cargo," a ship chandlers' representative said during a meeting to enhance management capacity of international seaports in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province.

Vietnam's seaport network has been developing very rapidly with a lot of seaports opening within a short time. However, Vietnam still cannot fully exploit the seaports due to the poorly equipped conditions and the lack of competitiveness in comparison with regional ports.

Saigon Transportation Mechanical Corp. (Samco) on Tuesday officially inaugurated the new port Phu Dinh in District 8, which will transport cargo on the HCMC-Mekong Delta route.

A host of difficulties are hampering Saigon Port's removal plan. Saigon Port's According to Saigon Port Authority's (SPA) general director Le Cong Minh, the firm's biggest difficulty upon removal was where to source capital for building a new port.

The bruising competition among port operators is forcing them to constantly undercut each other and sustain losses they cannot afford, a situation for which the industry blames the lack of Government oversight.

Ports have seen a decline in cargo throughput due to falling consumer demand in importing countries and overcapacity at the Cai Mep-Thi Vai deepwater port complex, according to the Vietnam Seaports Association.

The Mekong Delta provinces will increase the combined capacity of their ports system from 15.7 million tonnes in 2010 to 28 million tonnes in 2020.

A container scanning system is rubbing scores of businesses up the wrong way at Haiphong port.

Vietnam Seaports Association has written to the Prime Minister, Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Finance ect. to petition for the too low price of container handling service at the deep-water ports in Cai Mep-Thi Vai of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province. While the minimum cost is about 65 USD/TEU, the current price of container handling service in many deep-water ports at Cai Mep-Thi Vai is only 32 USD on average for a 20 feet container and 50 USD for a 40 feet container. This doesn't include other many free or reducing incentives which the carriers are promoted.

The Ministry of Transport (MoT) has recently ratified a specific seaport scheme for the four regions by 2020 with a vision towards 2030.