Lach Huyen deep-water port area is expected to soon become the logistics center of the North, ready to enter a new race to compete for goods sources.
New attraction
Lach Huyen deep-water port is a key project of Hai Phong, expected to continue to affirm its role as a logistics center of the North and the whole country. Therefore, infrastructure projects are of great interest to Hai Phong City for investment.
It is known that Lach Huyen port area is a gateway combined with international transit, with container terminals, general cargo terminals, bulk cargo terminals, liquid/gas terminals, international passenger terminals, public service terminals, and terminals for inland waterway vehicles. In particular, Lach Huyen port area is capable of receiving mother ships with a capacity of over 50,000 DWT - the type of ship that Cam River port area and Dinh Vu port area have difficulty receiving due to the draft depth that cannot meet.
According to the plan, from 2025 to 2030, Lach Huyen port will have a total of 13 - 15 berths, of which 10 - 12 berths serve container ships (from berth 1 downstream) up to 12,000 Teus (or up to 18,000 Teus), 3 berths upstream of berth 1 receive general cargo up to 100,000 tons.
Total cargo volume through the area is from 76 - 85 million tons/year (of which container cargo is from 5.5 - 6.1 million TEU/year, equal to 60 - 70% compared to the old planning).
In particular, in the last months of 2024, the area of container terminals 3, 4 and 5, 6 of Lach Huyen port is rushing to increase resources to complete phase 1 and put it into operation soon. Of which, container terminals 3 and 4, invested by Hai Phong Port Joint Stock Company, are urgently completing the remaining items.
According to experts, the new ports that will be put into operation at Lach Huyen port in early 2025 will help increase cargo capacity through Hai Phong seaport. According to statistics from the Hai Phong Maritime Port Authority, over the past 5 years, cargo throughput through Tan Cang Hai Phong International Container Port (TC-HICT) with 2 berths in Lach Huyen has increased from more than 431,000 TEUs in 2019 to more than 1.4 million TEUs (as of early December 2024).
The fact that berths 1 and 2 of TC-HICT port have exceeded the designed capacity shows the great potential of the seaport here.
It is known that at Terminal 1 and 2 (TC-HICT), there are 2 container terminals 750m long, capable of receiving container ships and general cargo ships with a capacity of 100,000 DWT fully loaded, with an initial design capacity of about 1.1 million TEUs/year. The enterprise is investing and adding equipment to increase the design capacity to about 1.4 million TEUs/year.
Meanwhile, the project of berths 3 and 4 has a scale of 750m for 100,000 DWT ships (about 8,000 Teus) and a design capacity of about 1.1 million Teus/year. Berths 5 and 6 have a scale of 2 berths with a length of 900m (450m/berth) to receive container ships up to 12,000 Teus - 18,000 Teus. In addition, there is also a barge berth to receive barges with a capacity of 160 Teus, along with a system of warehouses and infrastructure serving the port.
Investing in developing wharfs at Lach Huyen port will help transport goods directly to Europe and America without having to transit through a third country. Thereby, it will help reduce time and costs, and improve the competitiveness of Vietnamese goods in general and Hai Phong in particular.
However, when Lach Huyen port comes into operation, it will also create competition for goods sources with other ports in Hai Phong city in the coming time.
Need to synchronize infrastructure
According to Mr. Ho Kim Lan - General Secretary of the Vietnam Seaport Association (VPA), adding new ports in Lach Huyen can help increase the cargo throughput capacity here by the same amount as the existing cargo throughput in Dinh Vu area.
According to Mr. Lan, because Lach Huyen currently has only berths 1 and 2 in operation, most containers are concentrated at ports in the Dinh Vu area. However, the shipping lanes to the ports in Dinh Vu have a shallow draft (about 7.2m), so if there are more berths in operation, Lach Huyen deep-water port will easily attract shipping lines and cargo owners.
“Deep-water ports can receive large cargo ships, helping to reduce transportation costs, logistics costs, and benefit many parties. This is the competitive advantage of the port in Lach Huyen compared to ports in the Cam River,” Mr. Lan affirmed.
To improve the operational efficiency of Lach Huyen port, Hai Phong City People's Committee and businesses need to join hands to soon build synchronous connecting traffic infrastructure, ensuring to avoid congestion during the flow of goods.
Specifically, the road to Lach Huyen currently has only Tan Vu - Lach Huyen bridge. If new terminals are put into operation, having only one bridge may not meet the requirements, causing congestion.
“In case of inconvenient traffic, goods may remain in Dinh Vu area. This is an obstacle for the seaport in Lach Huyen if the government has not invested in building a new bridge,” Mr. Lan analyzed.