Making Dong Nai Seaport an important economic pillar

​Dong Nai seaport system is being planned in detail for development orientation (Photo of loading and unloading cargo at Go Dau Port).

The most important group of seaports nationwide

Dong Nai Seaports are identified as Category 1 seaports in the Seaport Group No. 4. Compared with the approved plans up to 2020, the volume of goods through Dong Nai seaports has exceeded the planning. Specifically, the volume of goods going through the Dong Nai Seaport system in 2019 is about 18.4 million tons. In the two years of 2020 and 2021, due to the impact of the epidemic, the volume of goods through the seaport system in the province has a slight decrease of 18.1 million tons in 2020 and 17.5 million tons in 2021. Compared with the approved plans to 2020, the volume of goods through the Dong Nai Seaport system has exceeded about 5%. Dong Nai Seaports also account for about 3% of the total volume of cargo through the seaport system of the country,” said Mr. Le Tan Dat, Deputy General Director of Construction Consultation Joint Stock Company For Maritime Building (CMB), belongs to a consortium of consulting units including: CBM; Joint Stock Company Consulting Construction Port - waterways; Transportation Consulting Investment and Development Center (a joint venture to consult on detailed planning of Dong Nai Seaport) said. According to Mr. Dat, the Seaport Group No. 4 is the largest group of seaports in Vietnam and also the most important group of seaports, accounting for 43% of the total volume of goods through the seaport system of the country.

Although exceeding the plan in terms of cargo output, the development of the seaport system in the province has not met the set plan. According to the Dong Nai Port Authority, in the province, there are 3 port clusters including: Long Binh Tan, Binh Duong; Go Dau and Nhon Trach. Among these, Long Binh Tan and Binh Duong Port Clusters have 6 specialized ports and 2 general ports. Meanwhile, Go Dau Port Cluster is planned to have 13 wharfs, but currently, only 11 wharfs have been completed. For Nhon Trach Port Cluster, currently, there are only 11 wharves built out of a total of 21 planned wharfs.

The aggregate data of the consulting unit shows that, in terms of the number of wharfs and seaports in the province, only 64% more than the approved plan has been completed by 2020. Similarly, in terms of the wharf length, Dong Nai currently only has more than 57% of the approved plan by 2020. The deployment of investment in seaports according to the plan as well as the delay in investment in construction of the connecting transport system are the main reasons leading to the failure of seaport infrastructure in Dong Nai Province to achieve the set targets by 2020.

Focus on domestic and intra-Asia segments

According to the master plan on development of Vietnam's seaport system in the period of 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050, Dong Nai will have 3 seaport zones including: Phuoc An, Go Dau and Phuoc Thai wharf areas; Nhon Trach wharf area and Long Binh Tan wharf area.

Phuoc An, Go Dau, Phuoc Thai wharves (on Thi Vai River) have a planning scope including land and water areas on Thi Vai River in Nhon Trach District. This port area has the function of serving the socio-economic development of the Southeast provinces and the Central Highlands region with general, container, bulk, liquid/gas cargo berths. For ship sizes, this wharf area can accommodate ships with a tonnage of up to 60,000 tons downstream of Phuoc An Bridge and up to 30,000 tons upstream of Phuoc An Bridge to Go Dau, Phuoc Thai, suitable for operating conditions on the route of navigational channels and vertical clearance of the construction work across the river.

The Nhon Trach wharf area has a planning scope including the water area to the right of the Saigon - Vung Tau channel, the Dong Nai channel, and the Dong Tranh channel in the territory of Nhon Trach District. Functions to serve the socio-economic development of the Southeast provinces with general, bulk, liquid/gas cargo berths. Regarding the size of the ship, the wharf area can accommodate ships of up to 45,000 tons or larger to reduce the load in accordance with the conditions of exploitation of navigational channels and the vertical clearance of river crossing works.

Long Binh Tan wharf area (on Dong Nai River) includes land and water area to the right of Dong Nai channel route (downstream of Dong Nai Bridge). The function is to be a satellite port area, a focal point for consolidating goods for seaports in the region and serving local economic and social development. This port area has general, container, liquid/gas cargo berths. Vessel size up to 5 thousand tons.

Mr. Le Tan Dat said that in the detailed planning for Dong Nai Seaport system in the coming time, Nhon Trach wharf area will have a key adjustment. Specifically, for this wharf area, the consultant recommends limiting the development of new ports from the 186 warehouse area to the downstream of the Long Tau and Nha Be Rivers and expanding to the Dong Tranh River area. The length of the bank is about 16km and the area is about 600ha. Meanwhile, for the upstream area opposite Cat Lai Port, there is no port development planning. “With the above area and length of the shoreline, it basically meets the development needs of the province, Industrial Zones in the area and surrounding areas. A part of cargo volume will be adjusted to move to Phuoc An Port. Phuoc An Port in the future will also be the main wharf area of ​​Dong Nai Seaport system "- Mr. Le Tan Dat said.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoang, Vice Chairperson of the Provincial People's Committee said that for Nhon Trach wharf area, from 2021, Dong Nai has carried out a review to adjust the planning. Some delaying planned ports are going to be removed to create more space for Nhon Trach urban development.

Regarding the operation segment of the seaport system, according to a representative of the Vietnam Maritime Administration, in the past 6 years, shipping lines have put into use very large "size" ships. With these ships, the size of the seaport must be large to be able to meet them. Due to the changing size of transport ships, ships of 60,000 tons or less mainly serve intra-Asia and domestic routes, while European - American routes usually have to have a vessel size of 100,000 tons or more.

According to Mr. Nguyen Xuan Sang, Deputy Minister of Transport, currently there are 3 main segments of ships, including: from 100-230 thousand tons specializing in transporting long distances; Intra-Asia segment with vessel size from 30,000-70,000 tons and domestic segment with vessel size from 30,000 tons or less. Thus, for the Dong Nai seaport system, based on the shipping trend and the size of the seaport, the consulting unit has also oriented the development segment for the province's seaport system. Accordingly, the Dong Nai Seaport system needs to focus on two intra-Asia and domestic segments.

Mr. Le Quang Binh, Director of the Department of Transport also said that the orientation of the consulting unit in the development segment is appropriate. For Dong Nai Seaport system, Phuoc An Port will be the main development place for the intra-Asia segment. The remaining seaports will mainly perform the role of satellite and cargo consolidation tasks.

Vi Quan