Mitsui OSK Lines’ (MOL) joint venture company Haiphong International Container Terminal (HICT) has opened a deepwater container handling facility at Lach Huyen Port in Vietnam.
The HICT terminal is equipped with a berth that can handle container ships with 14,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) capacity.
The terminal is also capable of meeting customer demands for reduced transit times and transport costs, while helping to economically grow Northern Vietnam.
It will be able to handle large-size container vessels, which provide direct links to Asia and North America / Europe.
MOL said in a statement: “The opening of the terminal means the opening of Lach Huyen Port itself. The Lach Huyen Port construction project is the first Public Private Partnership (PPP) between the Government of Japan and Vietnam.
“Backed by Yen Loan from Japan, the Vietnamese Government has been constructing various infrastructure projects such as reclamation, levee protection, a groin and breakwater, causeway and access road between the port and Cat Hai Island.
“HICT, as a private business entity in which MOL invests, rents space to operate the container terminal.”
HICT currently features about 45ha of space and approximately 750m berth space, which includes two berths.
It records a maximum annual trade volume of nearly 1.1 million TEU.
Apart from MOL, Vietnam’s Saigon Newport Company, Taiwan’s Wan Hai Lines and Japanese company ITOCHU own stakes in HICT.
In 2011, MOL opened the Tan Cang – Cai Mep International Terminal at Cai Mep Port in southern Vietnam.
