DP World Marks Official Opening of Saigon Premier Container Terminal

The world's fourth-largest container terminals operator, DP World, said its brand new Saigon Premier Container Terminal (SPCT) in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam was officially opened on Saturday. The DP World-operated container terminal, which is located along the western shore of the Soai Rap River on 23 hectares in the Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park, is a state of the art facility which began operations in October 2009; just two years after construction began in September 2007, the company said in a statement.

At the height of construction more than 1500 local workers were deployed on site, it said.
Phase one of the development has 2 berths and storage capacity for up to 15,000 TEU (twenty foot equivalent container units) at a time, including 650 refrigerated container slots, the statement said.
The continued development of the infrastructure by government authorities includes dredging of the Saoi Rap River to a depth of 9.5 metres, allowing SPCT to serve vessels with a nominal capacity of up to 5000 TEU Close to the city. DP World will then be able to serve both the intra-Asia market and deep sea trades.

Additional dredging a depth of 12 metres is planned for the near future, when SPCT will be able to handle vessels up to 8000 TEU, further reducing logistical cost for Vietnamese exporters and importers The opening cremeony was attended by DP World Chairman, Excellency Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, H Ngh a D ng, Minister of Transportation, Le Hoang Quan, Chairman of HCMC People’s Committee and Phan Hong Quan, General Director of Tan Thuan Industrial Promotion Company, SPCT’s joint venture partner IPC a state owned enterprise, amongst 700 other senior officials and dignitaries.
“I have visited Vietnam on many occasions and have been deeply impressed with the vibrancy and energy of this great country, and of Ho Chi Minh City in particular. It therefore comes as no surprise to me that HCMC achieved growth in container traffic of 2% during last year’s unprecedented recession in World shipping, ” bin Sulayem said at the occasion.

“This reinforces our confidence in the potential for this beautiful country.
We believe that with the right port facilities, further rapid expansion of international trade is not just possible but probable, to the benefit of both Vietnam and its trading partners.”
Currently five shipping lines have multiple weekly calls at the new

facility.
In 2009, DP World handled more than 43.4 million TEUs across its portfolio of about 50 terminals in 31 countries from the Americas to Asia. With a pipeline of expansion and development projects in key growth markets, including India, China and the Middle East, capacity is expected to rise to around 95 million TEUs over the next ten years.
(business@khaleejtimes.com)

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