Consortium to deepen ports in Cai Mep-Thi Vai

Joint venture ports between Vinalines and its foreign partners in the Cai Mep–Thi Vai  port complex in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, including SP-PSA and CMIT, are expected to be able to handle larger vessels thanks to the upgrading and dredging of lanes.

An alliance of investors Cienco1, Cai Mep, and Thai Son has proposed pouring VND6.378 trillion ($291.23 million) inupgrading and dredging lanes in the Cai Mep-Thi Vai area to enable receiving vessels of 100,000 DWT and higher under the public–private partnership (PPP) model.

Of the sum, the investment of dredging from Buoy No. 0 to CMIT port co-owned by Vinalines and Danish company APMT, is estimated at VND1.375 trillion ($62.75 million).

According to the alliance, the investors will dredge 22 million cubic metres from between Buoy No. 0 to CMIT port, 5.34 million cubic metres from between CMIT and SP-PSA (owned by Vinalines and Singaporean PSA), 2.23 million cubic metres from SP-PSA to SITV, 3.95 million cubic metres from SITV to Tac Ca Trung, and 2.68 million cubic metres from Tac Ca Trung to Go Dau.

If the proposal is approved, the project will be completed in the first quarter of 2019.

The proposal was made amid the growing volume of goods shipped via local ports, which surpassed forecasts by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

In recent years, the volume of goods transited via ports in the Cai Mep-Thi Vai area significantly increased from 8.73 million tonnes in 2010 to 25.65 million tonnes in 2011 and 19.30 million tonnes in 2014.

In 2010, the volume of dry goods passing through ports in the Cai Mep-Thi Vai area reached around 16.84 million tonnes, equal to the volume of goods forecast by JICA. If liquid and transited commodities are included, the volume was even higher.

Do Hong Thai, deputy head of the Vietnam Maritime Administration, said that the volume of goods shipped via local ports will rise to 101.6-109.2 million tonnes by 2020.

Source: VIR