After Vietnam's COVID-19 cases continued to rise for a month, Saigon Newport Corporation was forced to suspend part of the operations of Cat Lai, the largest international terminal in Ho Chi Minh City. If the backlog of goods in its storage yard cannot be reduced, operations will be completely suspended. It is reported that the container yard space of the port has reached 100%, and due to the surge of COVID-19 cases in July, the number of people on duty has been reduced by half.
"The new crown pneumonia epidemic is a force majeure event," a spokesperson for Saigon Newport Company told Vietnamese media. "Our company is still working hard to maintain the ship-receiving, shipping and receiving operations at the warehouse and yard in Port Gloria, as well as the service facilities in its system."
For several months, Vietnam has been reporting about 300 low-level cases per day, but in early July, the country began to experience a sharp rise in cases. Ho Chi Minh City is still under lockdown, and now an average of 8,000 cases are reported every day across the country.
According to Reuters, the Ho Chi Minh City Government said in a statement on July 23: “Due to the rapid spread and unpredictable nature of the Delta variant, in order to protect the people and minimize deaths, the city government has decided to strengthen a series of measures to control the epidemic. "However, despite this, the number of new cases continues to rise.
Saigon Newport said that after three weeks of operations during the surge in cases, the number of employees at Port Gloria has actually been cut in half to only 250. The epidemic has caused a shortage of port staff and forklift drivers, as well as a shortage of truck drivers entering the port to transport containers. Due to lack of workers, ships were forced to wait in line at the berth.
Since August 1, the terminal has stopped processing transshipment boxes and transshipment cargo. At present, they plan to suspend transportation until the 16th, and starting on the 5th of this month, the transportation of over-long, over-heavy, over-large, and over-loaded goods will also be suspended in the terminal.
Port operators recommend that carriers and their customers adjust their plans to transfer goods from the terminal in Ho Chi Minh to other ports. They also require all incoming vessels to notify the port in advance of the estimated number of imported containers and empty cargo on board within the next two weeks. They hope that with this information, they can better arrange the freight yard to handle freight, but if the freight volume cannot be reduced, they may impose quotas on imports or stop receiving cargo ships.
The terminal took these measures because its storage yard reached its maximum capacity. Saigon Newport Company is also requesting permission from Vietnamese customs officials to move containers that have been waiting in the port for more than 90 days to create more space. They suggested that the container be transferred to an inland container warehouse and will be responsible for ensuring that the seals on the boxes and the goods are in good condition.
