Vietnam Shipbuilding Expansion Moves On

It is being reported that the Vietnamese government has given approval in principle for STX Shipbuilding Co. Ltd of South Korean, to build a $500m shipyard covering 300 hectares in the Van Phong Economic Zone in Vietnam. Vietnam is keen to progress shipbuilding as a national champion and this is the latest development towards her goal of becoming a world-class shipbuilder to rival other countries such as China, South Korea and Japan.

Although there are 'certain formalities' to go through before final approval, it is almost certain that there are just purely formalities and the construction of the new shipyard will go ahead, as Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has instructed state agencies 'to help' the company with them. It is expected the yard will have a capacity of between 900,000 and 2.5 million Dwt between the first and second phases of construction. Other projects mooted for the Van Phong Economic Zone by foreign investors include:

A 2,640MW thermal power plant, costing $4 billion, by Japanese Sumitomo Group 1 million ton per annum petrochemical factory costing $1.2 billion by SP Chemicals of Singapore A $1.5 billion steel complex, capacity of 4-8 million tons of steel a year by South Korea's POSCO. The new shipyard will we located at Khanh Hoa, just north of the existing VInashin-Hyundai shipyard. Source: Shipping Times