The deep water port of Cai Mep-Thi Vai at Ba Ria-Vung Tau is helping to boost sea transportation development between Vietnam and the USA.
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An increasing number of international shipping companies have established direct routes from Vietnam to the USA for transporting cargo on large capacity ships.
Before 2009, Vietnamese exporters needed to use transit ports such as Hong Kong or Singapore in order to transport goods from Vietnam to the USA. They had to spend more on transportation time and costs to do this.
Previously, sea transportation was conducted at inland ports so it was very difficult for large capacity ships to enter and the costs would be even higher than using services at international transit ports.
This all changed in mid-2009 when the deep water port system was established allowing easier access for large ships.
The first successful trip was made by APL Company in June 2009 when their ship could carried 4,250 twenty four foot containers from Vietnam.
Following APL were the K Line Company and MOL from Japan, and Hanjin from Korea.
Grand Alliance has had 10 ships with a 5,500 container capacity in operation since January.
The largest ship to enter the port was an MOL Premium owned by the Mitsui O.S.K Line with a capacity of 6,350 containers.
The Maersk Line from Danmark will break the record by bringing the Mathilde Maersk ship which has a capacity of 9,000 containers this May. It will take only 18 days to travel from Vietnam to Los Angeles, California.
Rapid development of huge ships transporting cargo from Vietnam to the USA demonstrates the huge trading potential between the two countries.
