Vietnam ports languish in over-supply

[HANOI] Robert Hambleton wants to hear more noise from the huge container port outside his office near Ho Chi Minh City. Towering cranes at the next-door competitor are silent, without a ship on the horizon.

"It's a brand-new terminal without any customers," said Mr Hambleton, general director of Cai Mep International Terminal Co. "You get a sense of how dire the situation is. The whole terminal industry is oversupplied."

With companies from Intel to Samsung Electronics building billion-dollar factories in Vietnam, regional governments have established competing ports capable of handling overseas traffic, causing plunging rates and losses for operators estimated at US$1.5 billion or more, according to Seaport Consultants Asia.