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Ho Chi Minh’s Cat Lai Port and TCIT have for now stopped accepting imports from businesses with suspended production
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Also temporarily suspended until August 16, 2021 is the acceptance of import reefer containers with cargo to be unstuffed and stuffed into other containers at the terminal
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From August 5, 2021, receiving of cargoes that occupy ample space at yards is temporarily suspended
Cat Lai Port in Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam will temporarily stop accepting imports by businesses that have suspended their production so that it can clear a huge backlog of containers that have piled up.
The Star on August 3 reported that the Tan Cang Saigon (Saigon New Port) Corporation said the pileup has been caused by firms reducing or suspending production since the city’s lockdown began.
Starting July 9, the number of trucks coming to the port to pick up cargo has declined sharply, and the number of containers stuck has climbed to nearly 100% of capacity.
The port is also facing a shortage of employees, with the number halving to 250, exacerbating the pileup.
Meanwhile, Hapag-Lloyd in an August 5 emailed customer update on the port situation in southern Vietnam said that due to the local disruptions caused by the COVID-19 impact in Ho Chi Minh City, the Cat Lai Terminal and Tan Cang-Cai Mep International Terminal (TCIT) have undertaken a number of measures that affect import containers.
These include the temporary suspension, with immediate effect, of the receipt of import containers from companies that have suspended or halted production.
Moreover, Cat Lai and TCIT have also temporarily suspended until August 16, 2021 acceptance of import reefer containers with cargo to be unstuffed and stuffed into other containers at the terminal.
And from August 5, 2021 until further notice, receiving of cargoes that occupy ample space at yards (such as oversized cargo, overweight cargo, project cargo, out of gauge cargo) is temporarily suspended, said the German ocean carrier.
The number of import containers that are unloaded at the container yard will also be limited.
Hapag-Lloyd said that in the worst-case scenario, should the container yard’s storage capacity reach the maximum allowable level, the terminals will stop receiving inbound vessels.
Furthermore, receiving of export containers at Cat Lai and TCIT that occupy ample space at yards is also temporarily suspended as of August 5, 2021 until further notice, it said.
The Ho Chi Minh City area consists of a network of ports, with the Saigon port currently the 26th biggest container port in the world and the fifth biggest in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). This follows the Port of Singapore, Malaysia’s Port Klang and Tanjung Pelepas, and Thailand’s Laem Chabang in ASEAN rankings.
Ports in Ho Chi Minh City are the main gateway for the region, accounting for 67% of the total throughput of all Vietnamese ports. Cat Lai is one of the biggest and most modern container terminals in Vietnam, while TCIT is a deep-water port that mostly handles goods for Dong Nai and Binh Duong, which are major production centers in the region, and is popular on routes to the US and EU because of its deep-water capabilities.
Photo By Genghiskhanviet
