Category: SERVICES
Country: Vietnam
Region: Southeast Asia
By Glenn Taylor
13th August, 2025 at 2:40 AM GMT+5:30
Reading time: 4 minutes
As Vietnam’s role in global trade continues to grow, one of the country’s largest conglomerates is making inroads to expanding the Southeast Asian nation’s ability to serve ocean carriers.
Vingroup is planning on building a new port complex and logistics center in the country’s northern city of Hai Phong that is slated to cost 373.8 trillion Vietnamese dong ($14.2 billion). The company revealed the investment in an Aug. 2 filing with the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange.
The Nam Do Son Port project is slated to begin in 2026, with construction expected to take place in three phases through 2040. The complex is expected to be 4,400 hectares (about 15 square miles) across land and water, but it is unknown how many 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) or vessels the seaport is anticipated to be able to host.
Vingroup will use its own funds to finance about 15 percent of the total investment costs and seek external sources to pay for the remaining 85 percent.
In June, Vietnam’s construction ministry said it approved a 66-trillion Vietnamese dong ($2.5 billion) development plan to upgrade the Hai Phong port system by 2030. That money will be allocated to the port’s infrastructure development, while another 12 trillion Vietnamese dong ($457 million) will fund public maritime infrastructure.
Hai Phong already boasts one of the largest deep-water port networks in Vietnam, handling 190 million tons of cargo in 2024. This year, that number is expected to increase to 212 million tons. Nguyen Duc Tho, the vice chairman of the Hai Phong People’s Committee, said cargo traffic through Hai Phong has seen an annual increase of 12 to 15 percent.
There are 14 international shipping routes from Hai Phong, including six trans-Pacific services to the Americas, one to Australia and two to India.
Vietnam’s ports have already saw robust growth in the first four months of 2025. According to the Vietnam Maritime and Waterway Administration under the construction ministry, total cargo via ports reached 370.5 million metric tons, up 11 percent compared to the same period last year.
Container cargo played a pivotal role in this upward trend, with an output of 10.5 million TEUs, an 11-percent year-over-year increase. Both imports and exports grew 14 percent a piece to 3.29 million TEUs and 3.4 million TEUs, respectively.
Ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s initial “reciprocal” tariff announcement in April, trade with the country widened significantly, perhaps giving a preview of things to come for the mass apparel and footwear producer that further magnifies the need for more ocean cargo capacity.
Exports across January to July rose 14.8 percent over the same period of 2024 to $262.4 billion, while imports were up 17.9 percent to $252.3 billion, according to Vietnam’s National Statistics Office.
The growth percentage numbers are even higher when only calculating U.S. totals in the seven-month span. The January-to-July period saw shipments from Vietnam to the U.S. accelerate 27.8 percent to $85.1 billion, according to the country’s customs department.
Vietnam’s imports from the U.S. rose 22.7 percent to $10.5 billion during the stretch, with the country cutting duties on goods from the U.S. as part of its trade negotiations.
Yet to be finalized, the July trade deal brokered with the U.S. includes a 20-percent tariff on the country’s exports to America, and another 40-percent tariff on transshipments that originated in a third country. The latter tariff comes amid the White House’s assertion that Chinese goods are often shipped to Vietnam before being sent out to the U.S.
Vietnam’s state-owned ocean carrier, Vietnam Maritime Corp., sees some of the writing on the wall, with the company saying in January that it wanted to expand its container shipping fleet by 20 percent annually over the next five years. At the time, the carrier said it manages a fleet of 48 ships, including seven container vessels.
Revenue at the carrier is expected to expand to $3 billion in the next 10 years, up from about $800 million targeted for 2025.
One of the biggest global ocean carriers, CMA CGM, is making a major push of its own in the Vietnamese market. The French container shipping giant is investing $600 million to build a deep-water terminal complex at Hai Phong Port, which would be the company’s first docking facility in one of Vietnam’s northern ports.
CMA CGM partnered with Saigon Newport Corporation to develop the 1.9-million-TEU project, which is scheduled to open in 2028.
Vingroup’s plans come as the conglomerate has undergone significant expansion in recent years. The company’s automotive arm, VinFast, manufactures electric vehicles in a 335-hectare factory complex in Hai Phong.
In April, the conglomerate broke ground on a coastal tourism-urban complex on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City that is expected to cost 282.8 trillion dong ($10.8 billion). Vingroup also plans to develop 25.5 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy and liquefied natural gas power projects by 2030.
Courtesy: finance.yahoo.com
Copyrights © 2025 GLOBAL TEXTILE SOURCE. All rights reserved.
