Vietnam Shipping Industry Looks Bullish
The port of Ho ChiMinh City is expected to lead the way in terms of tonnage throughput handled in 2015. The port of Da Nang, however, is expected to outperform the larger Ho Chi Minh City port in terms of box sphere growth (10% compared to 8% respectively), says a recent report from Business Monitor International.
In terms of the wider economy, BMI expect strong foreign direct investment (FDI), healthy export growth and ongoing efforts by the government to improve macroeconomic fundamentals to keep the Vietnamese economy growing strongly.
This will all bode well for the Vietnamese shipping industry going forward. Real GDP growth is set to accelerate to 6.4% in 2015, from 6.0% in 2014.
The potential for political tensions to flare up once again could arise from Vietnam’s formal submission of its political stance on the South China Sea dispute to the international arbitration court at the United Nations on December 12 2014. Through the submission, the Vietnamese government is seeking the help of the international arbitration court to safeguard its sovereign rights and interests in the disputed sea.
The submission also challenges Beijing’s ‘nine-dash line’ claim that places most parts of the South China Sea under Chinese jurisdiction, and supports the arbitration case that the Philippines has filed on January 22 2013 in relation to its own maritime dispute with China in the disputed waters.
2015 tonnage throughput at the port of Ho Chi Minh City is forecast to grow 7.6% to 45.06mn tonnes. 2015 tonnage throughput at the port of Da Nang is forecast to increase 6.5% to 5.70mn tonnes.
2015 container throughput at the port of Ho Chi Minh City is forecast to rise 8.0% to 4.99mn twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). 2015 container throughput at the port of Da Nang is forecast to increase 10.00% to 206,320TEUs.
