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A Singaporean company - Freight Links Capital Pte., Ltd - has proposed to build a port for vessels of up to 50,000 DWT in the Vung Ang port in Ha Tinh province, in central Vietnam. The port would be designed with two wharfs, covering a total area of 20 hectares. Total investment is $114 million. The port will only serve the Taiwanese-invested Formosa steel complex. The company said that the plan has been approved by the Economic Zone Management Board of Ha Tinh province. A report released in 2014 by the government of Ha Tinh province shows that the volume of goods through the port of Vung Ang 2 surged, especially Laos’ transit goods, clinker from Quang Binh province and equipment for the giant Formosa steel project. The port was frequently overloaded and ships had to wait a long time. Warehouses were insufficient for storage. According to Ha Tinh authorities, over 80 percent of vessels had to wait (six hours and more) to berth at the wharf. Some vessels had to wait for more than 340 and 450 hours. The total time of waiting was up to 24,000 hours, equivalent to 1,000 days. Due to overloading, many shippers and the port authorities were fined as ships had to anchor at the port for a long time. The situation resulted in slow goods clearance. The Taiwanese group Formosa is now the largest foreign investor in Vietnam in terms of the investment capital, based on its US$10 billion steel integrated mill and deep-seaport in the Vung Ang Economic Zone in the central province of Ha Tinh. In additional, the firm has also invested US$900 million in the southern province of Dong Nai for manufacturing yarn and polyester fibers.
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