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Goods owners entreating God as goods get stuck at ports
The operation of the ports and import-export companies in HCM City have been upset because of the serious congestion of goods at the port, caused by the decision to restrict trucks on some routes to the inner city.
Tran Khanh Lam, Deputy Director of the Tan Thuan 2 Port, said that 20,000 tons of goods have got stuck at the port, while workers have been sitting idle for the last two weeks.
Due to the deadlock, a lot of big ships have to choose to dock at other ports, which has forced the Tan Thuan 2 port development company to lay off workers and cut down the production shifts.
“We have spent 50 billion dong to buy new equipment and cranes, but the equipments may be left idle because of no job, while we still have to pay debts and pay for the amortization, about 100 million dong a day,” Lam said.
Facing the same problem, the Bien Dong port nearby has been working at a moderate level. Nguyen Bay, Director of the Bien Dong port, said that 3000 tons of rice still have not been cleared over the last week, while in normal conditions, it takes only one or two days to do that.
The situation proves to be even more serious at Lotus port. The 15 hectare area of the port has been full of containers, while specific equipments to load and unloads goods have been left idle.
According to Duong Thanh Khang, a senior executive of Lotus Port, said that every month, Lotus receives 100,000-150,000 tons of steel, farm produce and consumer goods. “If the goods cannot be cleared in some more days, the port will have to stop receiving more ships,” he has warned.
The goods congestion is really not only the big worry for port developers, but for goods owners as well. The problem is that they have to bear many additional kinds of expenses. They have to pay 30,000 dong per container for every day of storage, while the transport fee has increased by 10-15 percent, and the production plan has been interrupted because of the lack of materials. Especially, they would have to bear fines for the tardiness in delivering goods to clients.
“Our 6000 tons of steel have got stuck at the Lotus port over the last 10 days,” said Nguyen Van Hien from Viet Thanh Steel Corporation.
Hien said that the company needs the materials to make steel pipes to the orders of some domestic clients and for export to Cambodia. Since the company still cannot clear the materials, its production plan has been delayed, while workers have to stay off work.
“We fear that we cannot fulfill the yearly business plan,” Hien said.
According to Thai Van Chung, Secretary General of the HCM City Goods Transport Association, in order to ensure normal operation of the ports and businesses, the city’s authorities need to adjust the regulations on the schedules for prohibiting trucks to circulate on the routes to the inner city.
Chung has proposed to allow trucks to run at the time from 10 pm to 6 am, saying that the traffic at that time is not too heavy, and the circulation of heavy trucks will not affect the travel of people.
In the latest news, the HCM City Transport Department has allowed heavy trucks to temporarily enter the ports in the districts of 4 and 7 to carry goods in non-rush hours in order to settle the current goods congestions at ports.
vietnamnet
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