HCMC seeks to build Vietnam’s largest port in Can Gio

In a statement sent to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Thursday, HCMC Chairman Phan Van Mai said the city has received a proposal from Terminal Investment Limited (TIL), the second-largest container carrier in the world, to build the port in Can Gio.

TIL, owned by Switzerland-based Mediterranean Shipping Company, has signed a framework agreement with HCMC on cooperation in the field of seaport infrastructure development and logistics services in the city.

As proposed by TIL, the port in Can Gio will have a dock of more than seven kilometers long to receive 24,000-twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers, the world’s largest, with a throughput capacity of 10-15 million TEUs per year.

The transshipment port is expected to be built through seven stages and the investor, TIL, wishes to start work on the first phase in 2024 for operation four years later. The entire port will be finished in 2040, it plans.

Once completed, Can Gio Port will replace Cat Lai Port in HCMC’s Thu Duc City as the nation’s largest terminal.

According to HCMC’s authorities, Can Gio port is at the mouth of Thi Vai – Cai Mep River, the natural border between Dong Nai and Ba Ria – Vung Tau provinces, which lies on international maritime routes and can receive ships from Europe, Africa, and the U.S.

Such a location is favorable for the formation of an international container port, creating a competitive advantage with other countries in the region as well as a breakthrough in the development of the marine economy of the city and the whole country, the city said.

Now the city suggested the PM assigns related agencies to evaluate TIL’s plan to build the port so that the city could guide the investor.

Approximately 4.9 million 20-foot containers are handled in HCMC each year, which equates to about three million trucks, or more than 8,000 trucks per day transiting in and around the city to discharge or load containers from the port area.

Tan Cang-Cat Lai Terminal handles over 92 percent of this volume and roughly half of the country’s total container number.

The amount of cargo through HCMC’s ports has exceeded its planned capacity, staying at more than 160 million last year, surpassing the target set for 2030 by 2.6 percent.