SP-ITC join hands with customers for post COVID-19 recovery

Thương hiệu - Giao thương - Ngày đăng : 08:51, 20/08/2020

(VLR) SP-ITC International Container Terminal was invested by the International Transportation and Trading Joint Stock Company (ITC) and was officially launched in 2016, being the first private international container terminal in Ho Chi Minh City. Despite being a “young” seaport, in recent years, SP-ITC has developed rapidly and sustainably, becoming an important gateway for import and export goods for HCM City in particular and the southern provinces in general.

ALWAYS STRIVE TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF SERVICE

Container terminal market in HCM City is a long-established market with many experienced terminal operators, both local and international, such as Saigon Newport, Saigon Port, Dubai Ports World, First Logistics Development JV Company, Ben Nghe Port... Understanding the position of the latecomer, during the development journey of SP-ITC, ITC leaders always focus on improving the service quality, making the best effort to meet the diversified needs of customers, aiming to make SP-ITC become the leading terminal in service quality and a reputable logistics service provider in the region.

Over the years, SP-ITC has always prioritized investment in items relating to service quality. To enhance the capacity to receive large vessels safely at the terminal and improve handling capacity, the terminal has extended the berth. From the 3rd quarter of 2020, SP-ITC will operate a berth of 700m in length, thus supporting the terminal to accommodate many large vessels at the same time, and be more flexible in the operation plan, receiving container barges or other barges types, helping customers being more proactive in transportation plans and create extra spaces for SP-ITC to provide more services to customers. In particular, SP-ITC has invested in a comprehensive port facility, systems and equipments, thus helping us to receive the approval from the authorities to receive container vessels up to 45,000DWT - the largest vessel size is being exploited in the port area on Dong Nai River, this is a remarkable achievement for us in the context that we are the youngest terminal in the region.

Besides, from May 2020, SP-ITC has put into operation a new reefer racks, bringing the total number of reefer container plugs at the terminal to 624 units. Reefer containers always contain high-value items, so customers always need terminals to provide refrigeration services with high stability, minimizing risks for goods, so investment in new reefer racks is a movement helping us to improve the quality of services for reefers at the terminal and is highly appreciated by the exporters/importers.

Despite being a “young” terminal, SP-ITC has invested in a comprehensive port facility, systems and equipments, thus helping us

to receive the approval from the authorities to receive container vessels up to 45,000DWT - the largest vessel size is being exploited in the port area on Dong Nai River.

Along with these developments, SP-ITC also made other significant investments such as building and operating a fleet of 6 barges, with an average capacity of over 150TEUs, specializing in providing barging services connecting SP-ITC with deep-water terminals in Cai Mep - Thi Vai with fast transit time and reasonable cost. SP-ITC also implemented the ePort portal with the motto “bringing the services to the customer’s office”. Now, customers who have a shipment of SP-ITC can sit at the office to handle customs clearance operations, sign up for service orders, services payment, print e-invoices, automatically register container on export list, and check for container’s position at the terminal...

JOINING HANDS WITH CUSTOMERS FOR POST-PANDEMIC RECOVERY

As we are all aware, the COVID-19 pandemic has widely affected every socio-economic aspect in Vietnam. Despite being a country with great achievements in the prevention of pandemic, production and business activities of domestic and FDI enterprises in Vietnam have been significantly affected. Understanding the difficulties faced by the business community, ITC and SP-ITC terminal have timely policies to support our clients and partners.

In details, for rice shipments at SP-ITC, in order to ensure national food security in certain periods, the Government has issued instructions related to rice export, causing troubles for many rice shipments. If the rice has been completely stuffing into the containers, the exporters cannot load the boxes onto vessel, the whole shipment need to stay at the container yard and incur significant costs. Understanding the difficulties of the rice exporters, ITC issued the Notice 165/ITC-PTKD to reduce costs for export rice shipments at the terminal through reducing storage and COV/COD fees, sharing difficulties with enterprises which exporting this strategic commodity.

Especially, for the import cargo which discharged at the terminals in Cai Mep - Thi Vai port group, then further barging to the port of delivery in HCM, SP-ITC is currently the only terminal in the city which does not charge customers the Inter-Terminal inbound surcharge. This is a significant expense, especially for large shipments such as agricultural products, cashew nuts, etc., this surcharge will increase the shipper’s logistics costs, affecting the competitiveness of Vietnamese goods. ITC will continue to maintain this policy in the near future to partly support customers affected by COVID-19.

In addition, during the period when COVID-19 epidemic affecting the operation of maritime business, ITC representatives have continously contacted the shipping lines to understand the difficulties of carriers, and thereby build up suitable policies for port operations and logistics services. ITC is highly appreciated by shipping lines and partners for our timely, appropriate policies as well as the spirit of customer-oriented in difficult times.

In the coming time, SP-ITC will continue to monitor trade activities and port operation to make accurate assessments on the overall situation and the market, thereby building more appropriate policies with the objective to co-operate and accompany our customers overcoming difficulties and obstacles caused by the pandemic, bringing the business performances of partners and customers to the normal stage and will continue to grow stronger in the future.

My Ngoc