New Vietnam port needs road infrastructure

New Vietnam port needs road infrastructure    An executive with APM Terminals' new facility in southern Vietnam has warned the country must not ignore development of inland infrastructure to support the giant deepwater container port that opened south of Ho Chi Minh City last year.
   “A number of critical projects are either underway or planned, and these are essential if we are to maximize the capacity of the new deep water terminals to handle main line mother vessels,” said Cai Mep International Terminal Commercial Officer Malcolm Gregory.
   CMIT is one of a number of container terminals completed or under development in Cai Mep, Vietnam's first deepwater port complex. The terminal, a joint venture between APMT and Vietnam state-owned Vinalines and Saigon Port, is due to open in January 2011, with five terminals in all set to be open by end of 2011. A PSA International terminal was the first to open in mid-2009.
   The emergence of Vietnam as a major manufacturing center has led to a significant increase in container volumes, even growing by 2 percent in 2009 when container throughput declined by more than 10 percent worldwide, APMT said.
   The existing Ho Chi Minh City terminals handle more than 90 percent of southern Vietnam’s overall container traffic, which reached 3.6 million TEUs in 2009. South Vietnam throughput is been projected to grow to 4.8 million TEUs by 2012.
   Much of Vietnam’s containerized cargo still moves by barge to and from inland points pending completion of road and bridge construction and improvement projects, added APMT, the terminal operating subsidiary of the A.P. Moller – Maersk Group. The port is 60 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City, but lack of road capacity can make the drive two hours or longer.
   “To support just four main line vessel calls per week, as many as 55 barge calls may be required,' Gregory said. 'And perhaps most importantly, every container lifted on or off a barge reduces the capacity of the terminal to handle main line vessels by the exact same amount, potentially reducing the main line capacity of the terminal by close to 50 percent. So quickly upgrading the landside infrastructure supporting Cai Mep is an essential prerequisite to achieving the full potential of these new ports.'