HICT services first vessel on North Vietnam-North America rotation

Northern Jaguar is one of the large vessels operated by the Alliance of Hapag Lloyd, Ocean Network Express, and Yang Ming Line on Trans-Pacific route with regular call at HICT, which provides direct service from the North of Vietnam to the West coast of the USA and Canada.

The PN2 service cuts down the lead time from Haiphong to the West coast of the US and Canada from 25 to 17 days compared with the previous route calling at overseas transshipment hubs. Thus, it helps customers to significantly reduce logistics costs and take initiative in the delivery of goods, without risks at transshipment hubs.

The successful berth of Northern Jaguar with a capacity of 8,814 TEU, and the overall length of 334 metres affirms HICT’s capability of welcoming large mother vessels and its position in the terminal operator market in Haiphong. It sets a milestone for container transportation via Trans-Ocean direct service not only from HICT, but also from North of Vietnam to the US and European ports without transferring to transshipment hubs. The deployment of this new direct service makes a complete change to the picture of seaport sea transportation in North Vietnam, which contributes significantly to remarkably reducing logistics costs, enhancing the competitiveness of Vietnam and its enterprises, as well as generating a driving force for investment attraction, especially FDI.

HICT – a joint venture between Saigon Newport Corporation, MITSUI O.S.K Lines Ltd. (Japan), Wan Hai Lines Ltd. (Taiwan), and Itochu Group (Japan) – started operations since May 13, 2018 as the first deep water terminal of the northern key economic region with two main berths of 750m in length, channel depth of minus 14m, turning basin diameter of 660m, while vessel draft at berth could reach minus 16m.

The terminal is equipped with modern synchronised facilities including 8 STS cranes which are the biggest in Vietnam, 24 eRTG cranes, two slewing cranes for the barge berth, along with operation system “TOPS-Expert” and electronic port systems “ePORT” and “eDO.” HICT can accommodate container vessels up to 14,000 TEU (160,000 DWT), with the annual container throughput of 1.1 million TEU.

In the very near future, HICT will continue to welcome further direct services from Haiphong to the East and West coast of the USA, India, the Mediterranean, and Europe, imprinting North Vietnam on the map of transshipment hubs in the region and the world.