Hong Kong invested EV Cargo enters Vietnam

EV Cargo, an international freight forwarding and supply chain service company, has begun its Vietnam operations with an office in Ho Chi Minh City.

“Vietnam has benefitted from companies diversifying their sourcing strategies away from relying solely on China and we are talking to our customers every day about Vietnam and how we can set up or advance their supply chain models,” EV Cargo’s Southeast Asia vice president Justin Bentley said in a release Tuesday.

“Increased foreign direct investment has seen Vietnam experience rapid growth in air and sea freight volumes over the last few years.

“As a market, it offers exciting growth opportunities for EV Cargo and our expanded presence and capability in Vietnam, underpinned by our ongoing local investment, will enable EV Cargo to capitalize on the opportunities both here and across the region to deliver our wider growth strategy,” Bentley said.

The company’s HCMC office will manage the provision of air and sea freight forwarding, customs brokerage, warehousing, and cross-border e-commerce services, along with cargo handling facilities in HCMC, Hanoi and and Haiphong - an industrial and logistics hub in northern Vietnam.

EV Cargo Vietnam will be fully integrated into the parent company’s global logistics execution platform, which manages the movement by air, sea and road of over $60 billion of merchandise for its customers between 2,400 pairs of countries and territories every year.

Southeast Asia represents a key strategic market for EV Cargo because it is one of the world’s fastest-growing economic regions and logistics markets, as well as an important sourcing origin for retailers and consumer goods brands, the release says.

Therefore, the company has been expanding its capability and capacity across the region with new offices and logistics facilities in Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

EV Cargo was established in 2018 by EmergeVest, a Hong Kong-based growth-oriented private equity investment group.

Its Vietnam entry entry follows the launch of new offices and freight centers in Malaysia early this month.

In Malaysia, EV Cargo’s newly-launched office on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur is close to major seaports and provides directly managed air and sea freight services to and from Malaysia.

In related news, port operating firm APM Terminals, a unit of Danish shipping giant Maersk’s transport and logistics division, formed a strategic partnership this March with Vietnamese group Hateco to develop two new deep-water berths in Hai Phong city’s Lach Huyen Port.

The Hateco Haiphong International Container Terminal project, enabling the port to handle vessels up to 18,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit), aims to capitalize on favorable natural conditions and geographical location of the area. It will facilitate direct import and export of goods between the north of Vietnam and European and American markets.