The port of HCM City. In the Lloyd's 2023 list, the port of HCM City secured 23rd position. — Photo saigonport.vn

HCM CITY — Việt Nam boasts three seaports listed among the Top 50 largest container ports globally, HCM City Port, Hải Phòng Port and Cái Mép-Thị Vải Port.

In the Lloyd's 2023 list, which ranked ports by the volume of container traffic represented in million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU), the port of HCM City secured 23rd position, slipping one spot from the previous year’s list. With 106 routes in Asia, one to America and two to Europe, the 160-year port handled over 7.9 million TEU in 2022, down 0.6 per cent year-on-year.

Hải Phòng Port also dropped one place to the 31st position, handling over 5.6 million TEU in 2022. As Việt Nam’s second largest container hub, it facilitates 69 routes within Asia, two to America and one to Europe.

Maintaining its 32nd position, Cái Mép-Thị Vải Port in Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu Province managed the throughput of nearly 5.6 million TEU. It services nine Asian routes, 21 to America and five to Europe.

Việt Nam leads the ASEAN region with three ports in Lloyd’s list, followed by Malaysia with two ports, while Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore each have one.

Most of Việt Nam’s international trade relies on sea transport. The country’s seaport system is now capable of accommodating the world’s largest tonnage vessels, drawing in 40 major global shipping lines.

In 2023, Việt Nam’s freight transport reached more than 2.3 billion tonnes, up by 15.4 per cent year-on-year, with goods turnover hitting 490 billion tonnes, up 10.8 per cent.

For the first two months of 2024, freight transport was estimated to increase by 13.9 per cent to 416 million tonnes, with goods turnover rising by 14 per cent to 88 billion tonnes compared to the same period in 2023. Notably, waterway and maritime freight transport have shown impressive growth rates of 21 per cent and 18.1 per cent, respectively.

As of 2023, Việt Nam's sea fleet comprised 1,447 vessels, including 1,015 cargo ships, totalling approximately 10.7 million DWT. The country ranks 3rd in ASEAN and 27th globally, with an average vessel age of 15.5 years. Vietnamese enterprises own foreign-flagged vessels with a total tonnage of 2.5 million DWT.

According to the Ministry of Transport, Việt Nam's sea fleet has seen rapid growth in recent years, handling 100 per cent of domestic cargo volume and 6-8 per cent of the export-import cargo market share. — VNS