Logistics firm Toll Group to gather pace in Vietnam, India, Indonesia with big bucks

Singaporean supply chain and logistics firm Toll Group plans to spend over $600 million over the next three years to expand its Asian business, keeping a keen eye on Vietnam, India and Indonesia, said its CEO Alan Beacham.

“Of the about $1.2 billion of capital that we have in our plans to spend over the next three years, more than half of that is in Asia,” Beacham told The Business Times on the sidelines of his company’s launch of the S$20 million ($14.2 million) Toll Innovation Center in Singapore last Friday.

This does not include the firm’s most recent investment in South Korea, where Toll spent $7 million opening a new warehouse that will be completed later this year, Beacham said, adding that a majority of this $1.2 billion would be invested in warehouses. He noted that Toll already planned investments to grow its presence in Vietnam, China, and Singapore.

The $1.2 billion investment will put Toll and Singapore at the forefront of supply chain innovation globally, said the logistics company. Among other things, its new innovation center in Singapore will look at the development of new technologies like the Internet of Things to improve resilience and transparency, as well as robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence.

As an emerging production hub, Vietnam is at an inflection point with a fast-expanding economy, a young population, and the willingness to adopt new technologies. The logistics market in the country is in its transition stage and the demand for logistics is rising strongly. High economic growth, increasing domestic manufacturing, a rise in consumption, and booming e-commerce are some of the key drivers of the Vietnamese freight and logistics market.

Vietnam is the fastest expanding digital economy in Southeast Asia this year, crossing Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, a Google, Temasek and Bain & Company report said October 27. The Vietnamese digital economy’s 2022 gross merchandise value (GMV) is projected to grow 28% year-on-year to $23 billion, up from $18 billion in 2021, bolstered by a 26% growth in e-commerce, the report said.

E-commerce is the key driver for the growth of Vietnam's digital economy, and 90% of digital consumers intend to maintain or even further their usage of e-commerce platforms in the next 12 months.

The booming e-commerce in the country presents an opportunity for start-ups with innovative technologies demanding more efficient logistics services, especially in the areas of last-mile delivery and value-added services, according to sector experts. The logistics market in Vietnam is becoming more liberalized, creating opportunities for new companies to cash in on the rising demand.

Global property services firm Cushman & Wakefield said in a report also on October 27 that in emerging markets like India’s Delhi and Vietnam, demand for high-quality logistics space has outstripped supply in prime locations.

Specifically, in Q3/2022, the ready-built warehouse market in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City reached an average rent of $5.3 per month, up 8% over the same period last year, while that in Hanoi was $5.6, increasing by 11%.

“For HCMC and Hanoi, the country’s two largest cities, demand for warehouse rental is always high at a combined average of 91%, with an increasing trend during the festive season and almost no supply near downtown areas toward the end of the year,” Cushman & Wakefield said.

The Vietnamese government is seeking to make Vietnam a powerful maritime country by 2030. It aims to increase the maritime sector's contribution to GDP to 10%. The government expects to increase the contribution of the 28 coastal cities and provinces to the Vietnamese economy to 60-70%, which was around 60% in 2017.

At present, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation is supporting the development of the iconic Vietnam SuperPort project in Vinh Phuc province near Hanoi. The $300 million logistics complex is a joint development by Singapore’s leading logistics service provider YCH Group and Vietnamese private conglomerate T&T Group.

With a coastline of 3,260 kilometers and many rivers flowing to the Pacific Ocean, Vietnam holds a lot of potential for maritime freight transport.