HANOI: Seaport congestion in Singapore is affecting the global supply chain, forcing many shipping lines to open new routes to other ports in the region.

This is a rare opportunity for Vietnamese seaports to attract more shipping lines around the world.

In recent months, Gemalink Port (part of the Cai Mep-Thi Vai Port cluster in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province) has been much busier, welcoming many new service routes.

In addition to eight regular weekly ships, the port has received more than 10 ad-hoc arrivals outside the fixed schedule to relieve congestion in Singapore.

The Cai Mep International Container Port (CMIT) also received additional transhipment goods.

However, the number of incoming ships was not many and the volume of goods unloaded by shipping lines at the port was not high, according to CMIT general-director Nguyen Xuan Ky.

That said, the number of container ship routes departing from seaports in the Cai Mep-Thi Vai area to European, American and Asian countries recently has grown impressively.

As of July 2024, there are 50 service routes at Cai Mep seaport, including 13 Intra-Asia routes, 19 to the Americas, four to Europe and one Europe-America , alongside domestic routes.

Particularly at the CMIT port, Zim Shipping Co has deployed several new service routes transferred from Malaysian ports to Vietnam.

It is expected that in the third quarter, there will be about two to three more routes to Europe directly from Cai Mep.

Notably, the increase in capacity of the route is happening as Singapore ports and some others in Asia are congested, causing ships to wait for many days.

The trade news website Seatrade Maritime reported that the waiting capacity at Singapore’s docks has increased to more than 450,000 20-foot-equivalent-units (TEU) and many ships even have to wait up to seven days to load cargo, instead of the usual one or two days.

According to the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, the Red Sea crisis forced ships to change routes to go around the Cape of Good Hope, altering schedules. The number of incoming ships increased at the same time, causing congestion in Singapore’s ports.

Observers say that congestion at Singapore ports has caused some shipping lines to restructure their routes, shifting cargo transhipment centres from Singapore to other places in South-East Asia.

For example, Tanjung Pelepas and Northport Ports in Malaysia reported record monthly throughput. In May 2024 alone, Tanjung Pelepas handled more than one million TEU of goods.

Northport of the Port Klang port cluster also benefited, handling 335,361 TEU in May 2024, an increase of 26% over the same period last year.

In Vietnam, Ba Ria-Vung Tau seaport is also benefitting. According to statistics from the Vung Tau Maritime Port Authority, in the first six months of 2024, the movement of goods through ports in the region reached more than 66 million tonnes, an increase of 30% over the same period in 2023.

Of the total, container cargo reached more than 36 million tonnes, an increase of 37%.

Cargo movement reached more than five million TEU, an increase of 39%. In transit, unloaded goods alone reached more than 650,000 tonnes, an increase of 21% over the same period last year.

 - ANN