'Reaching out to the sea' with a ship VIMC

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc witnessed the signing of a joint venture contract on transport and logistics business between VIMC and Suzue.

In a quarter of a century of growth and development, the Corporation's fleet accounts for about 25% of the total tonnage and nearly 20% of the total shipping volume of Vietnam's shipping fleet. The corporation is managing and exploiting about 27% of the country's total berth length with a cargo throughput of more than 15% of the total national output.

Reform in response to the new situation

At the request of new development, in 2014, Vietnam National Shipping Lines implemented the Equitization Scheme. After nearly five years of preparation, in 2018, the parent company - Vietnam National Shipping Lines has IPO and operates as a joint-stock company, at the same time using the new brand VIMC since September 2020. This creates an expectation to change the thinking and way of doing in the new period, helping to increase resources for the parent company to innovate in management activities and increase the competitiveness of the Corporation.

Regarding equity after equitization, VIMC holds capital in 19 subsidiaries and 16 associates, and currently owns shares of 16 seaport enterprises, manages and operates more than 13,000m of berths (accounting for approximately 30% of total national berths). With the dominant state capital in the parent company, VIMC will also hold 65% or more of the charter capital in joint-stock companies: Hai Phong Port, Saigon Port, Da Nang Port and Quy Nhon Port. These are the most important seaports of the country and have experienced strong growth in the past years. This can be seen as a strong fulcrum of the Corporation in the coming period when many important FTAs ​​take effect.

The delegation of Suzue Corporation and the Kanematsu Corporation visited VIMC.

Market development based on "tripod"

In the coming time, VIMC's business focus will still be three areas: Seaport - Shipping - Marine Services. In the seaport sector, the tendency to use large ships to save time and costs will increase when the proportion of new super-large ships (18,000 Teus) accounts for 37%. On that basis, VIMC will focus resources to invest in building two container terminals in Lach Huyen (Hai Phong) and continue to improve capacity and restructure joint-venture ports in Cai Mep - Thi Vai worthy of the role of international container transshipment.

For the shipping sector, VIMC will continue to liquidate and "rejuvenate" the fleet, develop a fleet of container ships and shipping routes under the common brand, and redirect investment by hiring/buying ships to exploit favorable markets, proceeding to join alliances on international sea shipping to present as a container transshipment unit in the region.

With the trend of increasing specialization, VIMC will also design integrated services to create a full-service supply chain, including Shipping services by sea/road/barge, warehouse services, carry out distribution to retail systems. In particular, to "catch the wave" of EVFTA, VIMC has researched the project to establish a logistics center "Vietnam House" in Europe.

In the coming years, in the three main business areas of VIMC, shipping and maritime services will continue to face challenges, while the field of seaport operations will slow down. However, VIMC aims to achieve more than 18 million tons of sea transport through the year 2025, nearly 139 million tons of cargo throughput (average growth of more than 5% per year), and more than 10,700 billion dongs, consolidated profit of over 1,200 billion dongs.

Strengthen international cooperation

As a key enterprise in the Vietnamese maritime industry, VIMC has actively joined with the Ministry of Transport and the Vietnam Maritime Administration in policy-making for international development and integration of the transport industry, including the maritime sector. In addition, VIMC together with the Vietnam Maritime Administration and the Maritime University cooperates comprehensively in the training of human resources.

VIMC always determines that joining national and international associations and specialized organizations plays a very important role in enhancing the position, reputation and integration capacity of VIMC in particular and the Vietnamese maritime industry in general at regional and international forums. VIMC also actively participates in activities of the Vietnam Port Association, Vietnam Logistics, and Logistics Association. As a leading and active member of all associations, the Corporation and other associations contribute to the voice of the Vietnamese maritime industry on regional and international forums such as the ASEAN Shipowners Association, Owner Forum. Asian ships, Asian Port Association, etc.

VIMC also has relationships and enlist the support of other international organizations in training and training staff such as NORAD of Norway, STC / IMTA, NUFFIC of Netherlands, PSA of Singapore ...

Every year, VIMC sends staff to train and re-train at international training centers and is cooperating with the aforementioned international maritime organizations to promote the organization of training courses in Vietnam to training faster, more than a contingent of professional officials and managers for the industry. Therefore, the qualifications of the employees at VIMC, especially the young staff class, are increasingly strengthened and improved.

In Europe, VIMC negotiated with a strategic partner and selected Belgium as a place to gather and transship goods. From here, a network of agents, road and air transport units participating in the supply chain will be formed. This system will collect goods for export from Europe, bring them to "Vietnam House" for loading on ships to Vietnam and vice versa. This door to door service will significantly save time and cost for goods traded between the two regions, creating a driving force for the growth of imports and exports.

…. focus on traditional partners

Japan is the largest ODA donor to Vietnam. Japan's ODA projects in the construction of transport infrastructure in general and seaports, in particular, are highly effective. Major ports such as Cai Lan (Quang Ninh), Chua Ve (Hai Phong), Tien Sa (Da Nang), Cai Mep-Thi Vai (Ba Ria - Vung Tau) are all built with capital from Japan. In the field of shipping, over the past 25 years, the Corporation has cooperated with the All Japan Seafarers Union (JSU) to implement the Project of Seafarers Quality Improvement (VSUP). This is a project to improve the quality of a contingent of more than 2,500 Vietnamese officers and crew members meeting international standards.

In May 2017, leaders of the Corporation and NYK'Line Group (Japan) signed MOU to develop logistics to promote cooperation in investment in building coal transshipment ports and combine transportation for thermal plants electricity in the South, South Central and Mekong River Delta.

On July 1, 2019, in Tokyo, within the framework of the visit to Japan, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and officials of the two countries witnessed the signing of a joint venture contract on transport and logistics business between VIMC and Japanese partner Suzue. Suzue is a "big man" in the field of transportation and logistics. The two sides expressed their wish to cooperate not only in logistics but also in the field of shipping because it is a strength of VIMC.

On the basis of good results achieved between Vietnam and Japan in general, and among reliable partners in the maritime sector in particular, VIMC deeply believes that the cooperation with Japanese partners will be successful in the coming years.