Subic Bay International Terminals (SBITC) of the Philippines announced Tuesday that it has launched a new service that expands the Port of Subic’s connectivity to Vietnam and southern China.
The new service, called South China Vietnam Philippines (SVP), is operated by Emirates Shipping Line (ESL) along with ASEAN Sea Line (ASL) and Pacific International Line (PIL).
“The service offers a good opportunity to northern and central Luzon traders, who can leverage the increased connectivity to markets in Vietnam and China,” Henry Dungca, terminal manager at SBITC, said in an announcement. Luzon is an island in the Philippines.
The SBITC announcement said that the new service caters to the growing trade requirements of Vietnam and southern China, adding that it was an expression of free trade agreements between the Philippines and other Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership members including Vietnam.
The SVP service route passes through Shekou, Nansha, Xiamen, north Manila, Subic, Xiamen, Shekou, Nansha, Ho Chi Minh City, and back to Shekou.
Ports in HCMC, Vietnam’s southern economic hub, can currently handle 164 million tons of goods a year, or more than 55% of the total of the southeastern region, including 8.2 million TEUs.
The quantity of TEUs going through the city’s Can Gio area is projected to grow to 4.8 million in 2030 and 16.9 million in 2047, according to the Vietnam Maritime Corporation (VIMC), a leading maritime service provider.
In related developments, the Vietnamese Ministry of Transport plans to add the city’s Can Gio transshipment port to the 2021-2030 (vision until 2050) national seaport development plan.
The port, which is envisaged to serve vessels of 24,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) or more, will be a hub for international container transport and be prioritized for investment, the ministry said.
HCMC had proposed to build the $6 billion international container port in the coastal district of Can Gio last July. The new port would have three times the capacity of the city’s Cat Lai Port, currently the country’s largest.