New hot spot Trade volume in Vietnam has skyrocketed, partly because manufacturers moved out of China because of strict blockade and quarantine measures last year, which has led to an increase in shipping capacity. main route to Vietnam port.
The capacity of ocean-going ships to dock at Vietnam’s ports has increased in the context of a strong shift in global commercial supply.
New hot spot
Trade volume in Vietnam has skyrocketed, partly because manufacturers moved out of China because of strict blockade and quarantine measures last year, which has led to an increase in the capacity of mainstream shipping vessels. Vietnamese port.
The figures compiled by the British logistics consulting firm MDS Transmodal especially for the Journal of Commerce show that for the first time, the ocean freight capacity accounted for the majority of ships arriving at Vietnamese ports in 2022, surpassing ships. transshipment and regional trains.
The data also shows that Vietnamese ports are experiencing faster annual growth in ocean freight capacity than ports in China, as shipping lines add oceanic services to meet demand. of goods owners in the context of a sharp increase in exports from here.
About 3.4 million TEUs of ocean freight capacity arrived at Vietnamese ports in the fourth quarter of last year, up 21% from the fourth quarter of 2021, according to MDS Transmodal Containership Databank. Meanwhile, deployed capacity on short sea routes was 3.2 million TEU in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared with 2.9 million TEU the year before.
Antonella Teodoro, senior advisor at MDS Transmodal, said that the ratio of ocean freight capacity to sea was nearly 51% last year, the first time deployed capacity on ocean routes has surpassed ocean freight. short. The carriers of the 2M alliance (which just announced its disbandment on January 25), MSC and Maersk have the largest market share in Vietnam port call capacity, each accounting for about 16% of the market.
But the fastest growing are non-union carriers, Zim Integrated Shipping Services and Wan Hai Lines, increasing their calling capacity to Vietnam by 32% and 40% respectively in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to a year earlier. . Teodoro expects transport capacity on ocean routes to increase further as more goods are produced and traded from Vietnam.
China’s comparative figures show that the ratio of ocean freight capacity to short sea routes was around 71% in the fourth quarter of 2022, while China’s call capacity growth rate was slow. much more. Teodoro said there were 20.6 million TEUs of ocean freight capacity calling at Chinese ports in the fourth quarter of 2022, up only 1.7 percent from 20.3 million TEUs in the fourth quarter of 2021.
The momentum of change continues in the new year
The shift in capacity will continue in the first weeks of 2023.
Cosco has adjusted its Asia-America container service since January to add ports of call in Vietnam while reducing the number of ports of call in China. The airline’s schedule shows that Cosco has added calls at Hai Phong in the North and Cai Mep near Ho Chi Minh City for its AAC service, while canceling calls at Dalian and Shanghai.
Cosco and OOCL launched a joint shipping service, AWS/ISE connecting Southeast Asia, India and the US East Coast in early January, providing direct service between Cai Mep and New York, Norfolk and Boston. through the Suez Canal. This service is operated by eight vessels with a capacity of about 4,000 TEU/vessel, transshipment time takes 30 days to New York and 36 days to Boston.
Peter Sand, chief analyst of online comparison platform Xeneta, said that the trade war with China initiated by Trump has accelerated the trend of increasing container volume from Vietnam to the US.
“For imports to the US, Vietnam is clearly the winner of the game, as Southeast Asian countries lag behind. This trend has prompted shipping lines to deploy larger vessels on trade routes originating from Vietnam. Xeneta thinks this trend will continue, with an increasing focus on geopolitics and “your country” in the coming years,” Sand told the Journal of Commerce.
Competing for supplies outside of China
Emphasizing the shift from China, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Khanh, marketing manager of Saigon Newport Company, said the requirements his port received were always the same. “Companies, already under pressure from lockdown restrictions leading to high production costs in China, are trying to identify manufacturers or factories they can work with in Eastern countries. South Asia, especially Vietnam,” Khanh said. “The logistics network is being challenged like never before.”
Apple has become the company that attracts the most attention when it shows that it is gradually reducing its dependence on China as a manufacturing hub with plans to move part of MacBook production to Vietnam by the end of this year.
The manufacturing shift to Vietnam is reflected in the throughput figures of Saigon Newport, and the increase in ocean freight capacity is reflected in the launch of new services.
Khanh said Saigon Newport, which operates container terminals in Vung Tau (near Ho Chi Minh City) and Hai Phong (in the north) plus a network of inland warehouses and yards, handled 9 million TEUs last year. last year, up more than 5% compared to 2021.
Provisional data from the Ministry of Industry and Trade shows that exports have increased by about 11% to 372 billion USD in 2022, of which about 75% belong to the FDI sector.
The value of Vietnam’s exports to the US increased to about US$110 billion last year, up more than 18 percent from 2021, according to preliminary data from the General Statistics Office. Vietnam has become one of the largest sources of US imports, Khanh analyzed.