Cai Mep aims for 600,000 TEU in 2012, after 2011's 186,000 TEU

VIETNAM's Cai Mep International Terminal, (CMIT) is aiming for 600,000 TEU throughput this year, having only achieved 186,000 TEU in 2011, far short of its 1.1 million TEU annual capacity.

This news follows statements from Vietnamese Communist Party news media that the terminal also suffers from the lack of shoreside infrastructure, principally good roads that would bring cargo to the port. The company hopes to improve volume through transshipments

APM Terminals, which owns 49 per cent of the terminal, 70 kilometres from Ho Chi Minh City, now competes with five other terminals in the country, says operations have achieved high productivity levels, "regularly exceeding 40 crane moves per hour", said MCIT chief Steen Davidson.

Said CMIT commercial director Nguyen Xuan Ky: "Given the current surplus capacity, terminal operators need to attract more transshipments. We also need assistance from the government to make port charges more competitive."