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Greg Knowler, Senior Asia Editor | Feb 20, 2017 6:53AM EST
Margrethe Maersk tied up at Cai Mep International Terminal in Vietnam.
The largest vessel in Maersk Line’s fleet, and the largest ever to call at a Vietnam port, tied up alongside at Cai Mep International Terminal today in a trial process to assess the feasibility of adding the port to the 2M Alliance’s regular Asia-North Europe schedule.
Margrethe Maersk is an 18,000 TEU ship and one of Maersk Line’s Triple E class vessels currently deployed on the Asia-North Europe AE5 service. The megaship called at the APM Terminals-operated facility on 20 February, discharging cargo at CMIT from Europe that was destined for Vietnam and other Asian countries.
While a Maersk spokesman said it was still “early days”, the reasoning is that Margarethe Maersk will operate within the 2M Alliance and continue to serve the Asia-North Europe trade.
The port of Vung Tau is in Vietnam’s Ba Ria‐Vung Tau province, southeast of Ho Chi Minh City. It wants to position itself as a Southeast Asian transshipment hub, a hyper-competitive market that will to a large degree depend on its ability to handle some of the largest vessels currently in service. Also important for this strategy will be growing trade, which has increased by 35 percent between Vietnam and Northern Europe in the last five years, Maersk Line said in a statement.
Giang Nguyen, managing director for Maersk Line Vietnam and Cambodia, said Vietnam’s economy has grown by 8 percent to 10 percent over the past five years and it was projected that the country’s GDP would increase by an average of 6.5 percent a year until 2020. She said the port call of the mega ship was a result of positive steps Vietnam’s government has made in terms of policy and infrastructure development necessary to accommodate the larger vessels.
CMIT is a joint venture between Vinalines, Saigon Port, and APM Terminals with 36 percent, 15 percent, and 49 percent ownership respectively. Its managing director Robert Hambleton said: “The arrival of the Margrethe Maersk is a major milestone for CMIT and for Vietnam, as it demonstrates that this terminal can also serve as a regional transshipment hub for Southeast Asian cargoes, particularly destined for the Vietnam-Northern Europe trade lane.”
The deepwater Cai Mep port complex was long under-utilised with inefficient landslide transport infrastructure. Customers preferred the congested Ho Chi Minh City port that was closer to the manufacturing areas, although its draught restrictions meant larger vessels could not call and feeders had to be used to serve Vietnam, adding to shipper costs.
However, even though growing export trade has placed Cai Mep back on the mainline services radar, the scrapping of the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal by the Trump administration does not appear to have done Vietnam any favours.
Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist for IHS Markit, said the Vietnamese and Malaysian manufacturing export sectors were expected to be among the largest beneficiaries as the deal would have given them much improved market access to North America. The TPP agreement would have significantly reduced tariff barriers for the electronics manufacturing industries of Vietnam and Malaysia, as well as providing a large boost to Vietnam’s textiles exports.
“Due to the significant gains that both Vietnam and Malaysia were expected to achieve through the TPP for improving market access for their manufactured exports, the outlook for future export growth for both these two countries has been significantly impacted by the US decision to withdraw from the TPP,” he said.
The 2M members have some of the world’s largest tonnage on the way and the need to find additional business to employ these megaships entering service will be pressing. According to Alphaliner, Maersk Line still has seven 19,630 TEU ships out of 11 in total due this year, although the carrier has not provided any indication whether some of these ships could be deferred to 2018. In addition, MSC has four 19,000 TEU units to be added in the first half of this year, all of which are slated to enter the Asia-Europe route.
http://www.joc.com/maritime-news/la...bility-join-asia-europe-service_20170220.html
Margrethe Maersk tied up at Cai Mep International Terminal in Vietnam.
The largest vessel in Maersk Line’s fleet, and the largest ever to call at a Vietnam port, tied up alongside at Cai Mep International Terminal today in a trial process to assess the feasibility of adding the port to the 2M Alliance’s regular Asia-North Europe schedule.
Margrethe Maersk is an 18,000 TEU ship and one of Maersk Line’s Triple E class vessels currently deployed on the Asia-North Europe AE5 service. The megaship called at the APM Terminals-operated facility on 20 February, discharging cargo at CMIT from Europe that was destined for Vietnam and other Asian countries.
While a Maersk spokesman said it was still “early days”, the reasoning is that Margarethe Maersk will operate within the 2M Alliance and continue to serve the Asia-North Europe trade.
The port of Vung Tau is in Vietnam’s Ba Ria‐Vung Tau province, southeast of Ho Chi Minh City. It wants to position itself as a Southeast Asian transshipment hub, a hyper-competitive market that will to a large degree depend on its ability to handle some of the largest vessels currently in service. Also important for this strategy will be growing trade, which has increased by 35 percent between Vietnam and Northern Europe in the last five years, Maersk Line said in a statement.
Giang Nguyen, managing director for Maersk Line Vietnam and Cambodia, said Vietnam’s economy has grown by 8 percent to 10 percent over the past five years and it was projected that the country’s GDP would increase by an average of 6.5 percent a year until 2020. She said the port call of the mega ship was a result of positive steps Vietnam’s government has made in terms of policy and infrastructure development necessary to accommodate the larger vessels.
CMIT is a joint venture between Vinalines, Saigon Port, and APM Terminals with 36 percent, 15 percent, and 49 percent ownership respectively. Its managing director Robert Hambleton said: “The arrival of the Margrethe Maersk is a major milestone for CMIT and for Vietnam, as it demonstrates that this terminal can also serve as a regional transshipment hub for Southeast Asian cargoes, particularly destined for the Vietnam-Northern Europe trade lane.”
The deepwater Cai Mep port complex was long under-utilised with inefficient landslide transport infrastructure. Customers preferred the congested Ho Chi Minh City port that was closer to the manufacturing areas, although its draught restrictions meant larger vessels could not call and feeders had to be used to serve Vietnam, adding to shipper costs.
However, even though growing export trade has placed Cai Mep back on the mainline services radar, the scrapping of the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal by the Trump administration does not appear to have done Vietnam any favours.
Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist for IHS Markit, said the Vietnamese and Malaysian manufacturing export sectors were expected to be among the largest beneficiaries as the deal would have given them much improved market access to North America. The TPP agreement would have significantly reduced tariff barriers for the electronics manufacturing industries of Vietnam and Malaysia, as well as providing a large boost to Vietnam’s textiles exports.
“Due to the significant gains that both Vietnam and Malaysia were expected to achieve through the TPP for improving market access for their manufactured exports, the outlook for future export growth for both these two countries has been significantly impacted by the US decision to withdraw from the TPP,” he said.
The 2M members have some of the world’s largest tonnage on the way and the need to find additional business to employ these megaships entering service will be pressing. According to Alphaliner, Maersk Line still has seven 19,630 TEU ships out of 11 in total due this year, although the carrier has not provided any indication whether some of these ships could be deferred to 2018. In addition, MSC has four 19,000 TEU units to be added in the first half of this year, all of which are slated to enter the Asia-Europe route.
http://www.joc.com/maritime-news/la...bility-join-asia-europe-service_20170220.html
