Gemalink International Port (GIP), Vietnam’s largest deep-sea terminal, is on track to open in the first quarter of 2021, after receiving its last pair of ship-to-shore container cranes.
GIP is a new container terminal being built in Vietnam’s Cai Mep port, at an investment cost of US$120 million.
South Korean equipment maker Doosan Heavy Industry manufactured the cranes at its Vietnamese facility in Chu Lai, which is approximately 600km north of Ho Chi Minh City, where Cai Mep is located.
GIP is a joint venture between Vietnamese logistics group Gemadept Corporation and Terminal Link, a partially owned subsidiary of French liner operator CMA CGM. Gemadept, which counts Japanese trading group Sumitomo Corporation among its shareholders, has a 75% stake in GIP. Earlier this year, GIP was part of CMA CGM’s port assets that were divested from the liner operator’s wholly owned subsidiary CMA Terminals to Terminal Link.
Approval for the building of GIP was given in 2007, but its construction was delayed by the 2008 global financial crisis as its principals was concerned of the risk of underutilisation, due to the many terminals in Cai Mep.
Land reclamation and soil improvement were carried out between 2010 and 2012, and the subsequent slowdown in the container shipping industry caused works to pause, until a groundbreaking ceremony in February 2019.
GIP will have an 800m pier, six quay cranes and will initially handle up to 1.5 million TEU annually. The pier can be expanded to 1.12km and its capacity can be raised to 2.1 million TEU.
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent
