Triple-E container ship docks at Cai Mep international terminal

CMIT, located downstream Cai Mep River of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, is the first port in Vietnam and the 19th in the world to be able to handle an 18,300-TEU Triple-E vessel. Margrethe Maersk, docked on Monday, is 399.2m long and 59m wide and has a deadweight tonnage of 194,000.

About 30 per cent of Vietnam’s containers destined for faraway markets had to transit ports in Hong Kong (China), Singapore or Malaysia, which has added to the delivery costs and time. With Margrethe Maersk to load goods directly to Europe, transport time for Vietnamese goods will be cut by a day and transport expense by 10-20 percent.

The Cai Mep complex of container terminals consists of CMIT, Tan Cang-Cai Mep ODA Terminal and SP-SSA International Terminal. It was designated to be a deep-water port complex capable of handling container ships of more than 100,000 DWT.

About 1.36 million TEU of goods was handled by the Cai Mep complex in 2015. The volume increased by 47 per cent in the following year to more than 2 million TEU.

(Vietnam Investment Review)