Congestion at Cat Lai Port will not occur

Representatives of HCM City Customs Department and Saigon Newport Corporation mentioned many measures to avoid congestion at Cat Lai Port- the seaport with the largest volume of goods in Vietnam.

Due to the complex development of public health crisis in HCM City and southern provinces, leaders at all levels have requested strict measures to prevent the pandemic. Many firms have not met requirements for disease prevention, so they have had to suspend or reduce their operation, leading to a huge backlog at seaports, especially at Cat Lai Port, Deputy Head of Customs Control and Supervision Division under HCM City Customs Department, Phan Binh Tuy said.

In addition, customs brokers and logistic operators have suffered obstacles in goods circulation, and a lack of staff performing delivery and declaration services and driver force.

Firms have also faced the sharp increase in logistics costs; port and yard operators have lacked personnel, especially workers to carry out goods loading and unloading, prolonging the time for receiving goods of entry vessels.

“This leads to an increase in the backlog in Cat Lai port. If this situation continues, it is likely the port will be full of goods and difficult to receive new entry ships. It will not only cause the congestion for import goods but also will affect exported goods due to the shortage of ships carrying export products,” Deputy Head Phan Binh Tuy said.

For this situation, HCM City Customs Department proposed the GDVC allow Sai Gon Saigon Newport Corporation to transport more than 1,200 goods containers that have been stuck for more than 90 days at Cat Lai Port to Tan Cang Hiep Phuoc Port to wait to carry out procedures.

The department has worked with Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Vung Tau Customs Departments to remove imported goods of firms located in these localities but are still stuck at Cat Lai Port to their ports and to Tan Cang Hiep Phuoc (in HCM City).

It has also provided solutions to speed up the handling of backlogged goods at the port. In addition, requesting firms that have imported goods ineligible for import to carry out procedures to re-export out of Vietnamese territory.

For goods transported to Cat Lai Port, the department allows firms to change the port of discharge and go through procedures at Cai Mep port or other ports in HCM City.

According to Tuy, these measures will aid importers and exporters in customs process and help seaport operators, especially Saigon Newport Corporation to solve congestion at Cat Lai Port and perform quick customs clearance.

Expediting release of containers

Sai Gon Newport Corporation has assessed the situation since July and proposed the GDVC and the Ministry of Transport about the risk of congestions at seaports, especially at Cat Lai port, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Phuong Nam, Deputy General Director of the Corporation, said.

According to Nam, this is a prediction of the risk. Cat Lai has not yet had the backlog. Currently, the port’s operation is still smooth and authorities have quickly provided solutions.

To maintain the smooth operation, the corporation has offered four specific solution groups.

The first, strictly implement pandemic prevention and control measures in ports. Apply IT applications to slash contact mutual contact, contact between clients and ports, and contact between port workers and ship’s crews.

Second, the corporation organised an online dialogue with more than 1,000 firms to discuss about the speeding up the release for imported goods container out of the port. Through the dialogue, firms have expedited goods transportation to the warehouse and accompanied the corporation to remove congestion.

The corporation has proposed Department of Transport to create favourable conditions for officials to travel to facilitate in all processes.

Third, optimise the use of storage capacity at the port. Saigon Newport Corporation has actively regulated all goods, for example, moving empty containers outside to have place for imported goods containers. During the pandemic, the export volume has also decreased, so firms took advantage of the export container storage space to load import containers.

The corporation also cooperates with neighboring ports in the region and Cai Mep port to prepare the situation that if Cat Lai Port is really congested, it will bring ships to these ports to unload imported goods and return to Cat Lai port to take export goods.

Fourth, Saigon Newport Corporation to minimise the amount of imported goods brought to the port by notifying shipping lines and clients in the direction that firms that have stopped production or suspended production will coordinate with sellers in foreign countries to temporarily delay goods delivery to Vietnam and shipping lines also coordinate to regulate shipping routes arriving to Vietnam to reduce volume of imported goods arriving to the port at the same period, especially during the social distancing period.

In addition, it encourages clients to take goods at Hiep Phuoc port and Cai Mep port instead of Cat Lai Port by changing the destination port on the manifest. This will reduce the volume of imported goods arriving to Cat Lai port.