Chan May Port welcomes large ships. Photo: Nguyen Phong

What makes a shipping line that owns and operates 36 container ships to 170 destinations in 28 countries like RCL choose Chan May port of Thua Thien Hue to open a new sea route in the plan to deploy ships to Central Vietnam, instead of Tien Sa port or Da Nang port...

Potential, advantages & incentives

After nearly 1 year of implementing container cargo services, Chan May port has received and unloaded 65 container ships (21 foreign ships, 44 domestic ships) with a throughput of 7,370 TEUs, equivalent to 110,640 tons of cargo. It is expected that by the end of 2023, there will be 12 more domestic ships and 4 international ships with an output of 1,716 TEUs, equivalent to about 28,350 tons of cargo.

“In the period of 2019 - 2022, domestic and international goods of Phenikaa Hue Mineral Investment and Processing Company Limited (Phenikaa Group) were transported via road and Da Nang port at quite high costs. By 2023, we will transport part of the goods via Chan May port on the domestic container route. Thanks to the reduction in transportation costs, the goods are more competitive, so in the face of difficulties due to the economic crisis, the company is still operating and producing stably,” said a representative of this company.

According to Mr. Huynh Van Toan - General Director of Chan May Port Joint Stock Company, besides the capacity of container loading and unloading, infrastructure, vehicles, equipment, etc., the important factor is that the leaders, departments, branches, and authorities always accompany the unit, with enterprises, as well as the support policy of the Provincial People's Council, which brings great efficiency in promoting and developing Chan May Port, thereby creating a favorable environment to attract investment, export, and import.

In addition to the general incentive mechanism and policies, Thua Thien Hue has issued a separate Resolution to encourage and attract container shipping lines and enterprises with import and export activities to do business at Chan May port. After more than 1 year of implementation, up to now, a number of shipping lines and enterprises have enjoyed support policies, such as: Hai An Container Transport Company Limited (Hai An Shipping Company), A&B Vietnam Investment Joint Stock Company, Baosteel Can Making Company Limited (Hue), Frit Phu Xuan Joint Stock Company... with a total support amount of nearly 8 billion VND. And it is estimated that the budget to support shipping lines and enterprises with goods transported by container through the port until the end of 2023 is about 18 billion VND.

Chan May Port is increasingly attracting more container ships to load and unload goods.

However, Mr. Huynh Van Toan also said that through the working sessions, the company also received some feedback from businesses, such as: logistics infrastructure in the area is not synchronous, lack of logistics center system; difficulty in attracting goods sources; goods output of the Central region is not much, imbalance between export and import goods...

From these limitations, Chan May Port hopes that the government, departments and agencies will continue to maintain the support level, at the same time, extend the application period of the support policy from 3-5 years; soon complete phase 2 - Breakwater project; continue to call for and attract businesses to invest, build logistics centers, ICD ports, warehouses, logistics services... to work with port operators to attract international shipping lines more conveniently.

To be worthy of being a national general port

In fact, logistics services directly affect the operational efficiency as well as create competitiveness of enterprises in the market. Enterprises related to the import and export of goods by sea all hope to have a seaport that meets the main criteria: transportation time, transportation cost and service quality.

As for Chan May port, in addition to the advantage of having a deep-water port, there is also attention and maximum support in policies to attract shipping lines to handle goods at the port. However, currently, international shipping lines are limited, so the import and export of containers by enterprises in the area and neighboring provinces through the port is not commensurate with the potential.

According to Mr. Nguyen Xuan Linh - CEO of Scavi Group in the Central region, at a time when the volume of goods is not much and international shipping lines are in the process of approaching to operate, Chan May port and Thua Thien Hue need to have more policies to attract domestic shipping lines, thereby becoming a bridge connecting directly with international shipping lines and conducting transshipment of export containers of enterprises in the province and neighboring provinces from Chan May port and to containers via international ships at some ports nationwide such as Cai Mep, Hai Phong... before exporting to foreign countries.

“Chan May Port should compile statistics and select an international shipping route that businesses in the area and neighboring provinces have the highest demand for, to work with a number of potential international shipping lines, put into operation, and not spread out. At the same time, test run an international ship to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages, from which to have short-term and long-term plans for the next trips,” Mr. Linh suggested.

In addition, Thua Thien Hue should form a logistics center providing logistics services for businesses, such as container rental, warehouse rental with optimal service quality and cost; connecting with Customs and functional agencies to provide customs clearance services to ensure the fastest and most convenient; having competitive solutions in terms of transportation time compared to ports in the region, specifically Tien Sa port, Da Nang port, etc.

Returning to the fact that RCL shipping line opened an international container shipping route through Chan May port, this not only shows the potential and advantages, but also serves as a driving force and catalyst to attract more and more domestic and international enterprises and large shipping lines to Chan May port, thereby contributing to promoting the development of Chan May - Lang Co Economic Zone in particular and Thua Thien province in general.

And to exploit more and more effectively the potentials and advantages, step by step building Chan May port worthy of being a national general port, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Hoang Hai Minh said that he has requested relevant departments, branches, sectors and localities to continue to strengthen the promotion and mobilization of enterprises inside and outside the province to circulate container goods through Chan May port; reduce related costs; study and open more domestic/international container routes; review and advise the Provincial People's Committee to submit to the Provincial People's Council to consider extending the application period of support policies for shipping lines and enterprises importing and exporting container goods through Chan May port; complete logistics infrastructure...

“Thua Thien Hue commits to always be consistent with the policy of “Government accompanying, connecting, and sharing” with the business community with the motto of “always aiming at and taking businesses as the center and driving force for sustainable and autonomous economic development of the province”, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Hoang Hai Minh affirmed.

Article and photos: Han Dang - Chart: Huong Tra