FEATURE: River-borne containers

European shippers have long taken advantage of that continent’s rivers for shipping containers. More recently, Vietnamese shipping firms are following that trend.

Development of a deep draught container port in the Vung Tau Port complex is making the shipment of containers from and to European and American markets ever more efficient.

With shallow draught vessels capable of loading containers in Phnom Penh readily able to travel just over 200 nautical miles down river to transship at the improved container ports in Vietnam, this is a nearly seamless connection.

It also make possible the transit of containers from deep draught ports of Vietnam (such as Cat Lai Port, Cai Mep Port, Tan Cang Port) to local shallow draught depots (Binh Duong Depot, Phuoc Long Port, Tan Thuan Port, Khanh Hoi Port).

To meet a growing demand for logistical support to transport containers from deep draft ships on up both the Mekong and the Saigon Rivers, there has been a growth in the demand for shallow draught container ships.

ITC Corporation has a pair of 75- by 13-metre container vessels in build at the An Phu Shipbuilding Company of Ho Chi Minh City. Each ship will have capacity for 128 TEU (twenty feet equivalent) containers.

This capacity will handle total cargo weights of up to 2,500 tonnes. Propulsion power for each vessel will be provided by a pair of Cummins KTA19-M main engines rated for 450kW each at 1,800rpm.


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