Owns 250km of coastline with over 6,000km2 On the water surface, Quang Ninh has outstanding advantages in marine economic development. In recent years, the province has implemented synchronous solutions. CQuang Ninh’s ports have become a familiar address for ship owners and cargo owners to choose to bring large tonnage ships to, contributing to important to the province’s growth.
Prioritize resources for seaport development
Quang Ninh currently has 8 port areas and 2 anchorage and transshipment areas, accompanied by synchronization of infrastructure and post-port services, identified by the Government as one of the 5 major seaport areas of the country. country, responsible for over 50% of the total volume of goods and passengers in the Northern region, with a role in serving the socio-economic development of the whole country, inter-region, gateway or international transit port…
Notably, the Hon Gai – Cai Lan port area is located in a closed bay, the channel entering the port is less prone to sedimentation, with 25 wharfs identified as the regional focal national general port, including the container general port area. Cai Lan and specialized satellite terminals. From 2004 to present, Cai Lan International Container Port expanded twice, investing synchronously with modern equipment, such as STS Panamax type shore crane with 17 rows of containers; ERTG crane, 7 rows of containers wide; Overweight cargo loading and unloading service up to 100 tons at crane hook; forklift truck, container truck in the yard…, capacity to receive ships up to 80,000 tons to handle cargo.
In the Cam Pha area, there are currently 7 wharves, mainly specialized ports of the coal industry and general wharves, serving the coal mining industry and a number of other concentrated industrial facilities. Of which, Cua Ong wharf has an area of 20 hectares with 2 adjacent wharfs of 550m long, depth in front of the wharf of 10.5m; The Con Ong – Hon Net buoy system has a depth of over 20m and is capable of receiving ships of up to 120,000 tons.
Other port areas such as Hai Ha, Van Gia, Co To… are general ports with the function of sea transport not only for the region, but also as a gateway for trade with China.
The marine economy is determined to be an important driving force in the province’s socio-economic development in the period up to 2030. Based on outstanding potentials and advantages, the province has prioritized resources for develop the marine economy, expand open mechanisms and create maximum conditions to attract investors for seaport infrastructure. Especially to closely connect economic zones and industrial parks with seaports, in implementing dynamic traffic projects, there is always a synchronous, interconnected, and overall connection with the ports. In 2019, the Provincial Party Committee issued a separate resolution on the development of seaports and seaport services (Resolution No. 15-NQ/TU) with feasible, appropriate, focused, key solutions associated with the current situation. actual situation of the province.
From 2020 up to now, through expanding the open mechanism and creating maximum conditions to attract investors for seaport infrastructure, the province has always clearly shown its view of accompanying investors throughout the life cycle. project by focusing on removing shortcomings and attracting investment in developing logistics infrastructure, especially marine agency services, ship equipment supply, yard rental… The province also implemented other Sustainable, long-term support policy for ship owners, cargo owners, and owners of vehicles transporting goods by road when choosing Quang Ninh seaport area. At the same time, create conditions to support port and wharf owners in finding partners who are shipping lines, cargo owners, and logistics companies. The province builds a mechanism to monitor the quality of seaport service activities and encourages businesses in the same industry to join the association to support and help each other develop, aiming to organize promotion programs and attract resources. goods with competitive advantage…
With diligence and the spirit of cooperation and development, from 2020 up to now, Quang Ninh has attracted off-budget investment capital for 10 seaport infrastructure and service projects, with a total capital of nearly 65,000 billion VND, as follows: Van Ninh port, LNG gas power project, Ao Tien high-end port… At the same time, continue to promote investment in Yen Hung liquid cargo port, total investment of nearly 800 billion VND; Hon Mieu island multi-purpose port, total investment of more than 1,000 billion VND; Chanh River 3 port with 6 ports receiving ships up to 50,000 DWT, total throughput capacity of 12 million tons of goods/year, total investment of about 7,700 billion VND…
With existing and upcoming infrastructure, Quang Ninh has all the ideal conditions for a logistics center and the focal point of the Northern key economic region, an important connection point in transportation and goods circulation. with surrounding areas. These are the top conditions to exploit and develop maritime services, transshipping goods from Quang Ninh ports to border gates, economic zones, and industrial parks throughout the North. Quang Ninh’s marine economy has outstanding competitive advantages compared to other localities in the region; in line with the development trend of the world’s most popular cargo transport, which is by sea, to have the highest business efficiency.
Identify challenges, seize new opportunities
Although Quang Ninh seaport has many competitive advantages, objectively speaking, up to now these advantages are still at potential level. This can be clearly seen when most of the province’s seaports are still in a state of excess capacity, and the exploitation value is still modest due to lack of goods sources. The seaport is determined to play an important role in socio-economic development. After locating and piloting a number of solutions, the province has identified challenges to develop a long-term development plan.
Mr. Hoang Quang Hai, Director of the Provincial Department of Transport, said: A new opportunity for Quang Ninh seaport has begun, however, it is not easy to grasp this opportunity well, because the competitiveness of Quang Ninh seaport is still weak. for quite a few reasons. That is, investing in seaport infrastructure requires large capital, while the source of export and import goods is not stable, so many projects are implemented slowly, investors are not really interested; Seaport and logistics service activities still face difficulties, affected by import and export policies; The source of goods and goods in industrial parks and production areas supplied to shipping lines and shipowners is lacking and unstable; Solutions for linking, consuming, delivering, and transporting goods from provinces through Quang Ninh seaport have not had many innovations.
Some experts believe that poor competition is due to the weak and insufficient promotion of the Quang Ninh seaport brand. Foreign shipping lines and shippers do not know much about Quang Ninh’s seaport system. Meanwhile, in the adjacent port system of Hai Phong City, the port brand, safe yards and post-port services have been built quite early, the image of the only seaport in the Northeast of Vietnam has been recognized by Hai Phong. The promotion department is relatively sharp. Therefore, when opening declarations and orders, shippers often choose Hai Phong to send ships to.
To develop seaports, logistics is an extremely important factor that determines the competitiveness of ports. But in Quang Ninh, logistics only stops at being a shipping agent, supporting towing services, and providing some simple services. While services require high technology, such as ship repair and maintenance, underwater diving to survey hulls and ultrasonic inspection of goods, instead of having to unlock and seal containers, they must rely on services from Hai Phong. . Port operators and management units have not really paid attention to the channel system, upgrading and renovating ports and wharves…
Quang Ninh is promoting its deep-water port advantages, attracting large international ships to handle cargo. However, large ships connecting many countries through Cai Lan port only have imported goods, carry out loading, unloading and transshipment; while the source of goods turned around to export to countries on the roadmap is not yet available. Because of the lack of goods circulating in the opposite direction, transportation costs have increased, making shipping lines and shippers quite hesitant when choosing Quang Ninh port.
Also due to lack of cargo, Quang Ninh’s ports currently mainly operate as general ports, even Cai Lan International Container Port is a specialized port for container goods, now supplemented with bulk cargo. Therefore, the zoning is not clear, affecting goods stored at the port. The proof is that after 5 years of importing cars to Vietnam at Cai Lan port, bringing a large source of revenue to the provincial budget from taxes, in 2016 Kline shipping company and NYK Vietnam Co., Ltd. decided to transfer the transportation. Transfer cars to Hai Phong Port. The reason is that the port has not yet divided into functional zones and lack of parking lots has caused cargo transshipment to be congested; Lack of specialized testing equipment, so testing is not synchronous and effective.
At other port clusters, such as Van Gia, despite its favorable geographical location, ships entering and leaving have increased, but they are still mainly inland waterway vessels and small Chinese vessels under 200 DWT. The main goods are alcohol, cigarettes, frozen foods, and coal slag. Maritime activities in the Quang Yen area also face difficulties because the navigation channels into the ports have not been cleared, dredged and expanded to an appropriate depth, so investors are still cautious…
To overcome the above limitations, while continuing to improve the comprehensive capacity of the seaport system, meeting the requirements of industrialization, modernization of the country and international integration…, Quang Ninh is focusing on reviewing and implementing consolidate plans and have a long-term orientation for development. There is a focus on investment in tourism infrastructure; Synchronously and effectively exploit general seaports, international transshipment ports, and specialized ports, associated with support services; Developing a shipping fleet with a reasonable structure, applying modern technology, improving service quality, meeting transport market needs, deeply participating in supply chains to gradually increase, dominate international market share… This will contribute to promoting the advantages of Quang Ninh seaport, realizing strategic goals, participating in the economic growth of the province and the country, contributing to making Vietnam become a become a country “strong in the sea, rich in the sea, with sustainable development, prosperity, security and safety”.
Tags: seaport driving force development
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