News Room - Business/Economics

Posted on 21 Dec 2007

Viet Nam opens first container plant

Hai Duong — Vinashin-TGC Container Joint Venture Co (VTC) yesterday inaugurated its container manufacturing plant in the northern province of Hai Duong.

The plant is said to be the second biggest of its kind in Southeast Asia.

The US$30 million facility, a joint venture between Viet Nam‘s dominant shipbuilder Viet Nam Shipbuilding Industry Group (Vinashin) and Toong Goen Enterprise (TGC) of Taiwan, is expected to have an annual capacity of 45,000 TEUs (20ft equivalent units), according to Vinashin general director, Nguyen Hong Anh.

"This is a crucial step towards the further development of Viet Nam’s shipping sector as it will simultaneously reduce transport costs while increasing the competitiveness of Viet Nam’s exports," she said.

Anh added that as many as 80 per cent of the company’s containers will be exported, the remaining 20 per cent will be sold to local shippers.

According to Vinashin CEO, Pham Thanh Binh, Vinashin will help VTC to lift production capacity to 100,000 TEUs a year, and to build more plants in Central and Southern Viet Nam.

"Vinashin hopes to boost total production capacity to 200,000 TEUs a year by 2010," Binh said.

VTC also signed two contracts yesterday to sell containers to the Vinashin Ocean Shipping Co and Taiwanese Evergreen Co. The value of the contracts was not released.

Demand for shipping containers in Viet Nam continues to increase by around 50 per cent a year, while the total cost for container transportation reaches $1 billion a year.

Most contracts for container transportation in Viet Nam belong to foreign shipping companies, which weakens the competitiveness of the country’s exports, according to the Ministry of Transport of Viet Nam.