Letter of SNP's General director to shipping lines (18/7/2008)

 
To: Shipping Lines, Shipping agents

Dear Sirs or Mesdames, 

We would like to express our sincere thanks to you for the kind assistance to SNP.
It has been over two months since we had your valuable presence in the May meeting between SNP and the General Directors and the Chief Representatives of the shipping lines in Vietnam. We had received many priceless constructive opinions and suggestions from the representatives of shipping lines for the solutions to the port congestion problems. Through this letter, on behalf of the BOD of Saigon Newport, kindly let me express our deep gratitude to you for this precious support.
After the meeting, we have taken the proper mentioned measures to overcome the difficulties at Cat Lai port. The long-stay import laden containers have been moved from Cat Lai to Tan Cang. The permission of Vinamarine and Saigon HaborAuthority for the pilot navigation of vessels, having LOA of up to 205m during the night-time to and from the Catlai port has been obtained. The construction of the depots next to Cat Lai port as well as equipping the CY with more state-of-art handling cranes have been sped up. As the result, the operation at Cat Lai port was smooth in the mid of June.

In an effort to raise the vessel handling productivity as well as to shorten the container receipt/ delivery time, since June 22, 2008, the new TOPX terminal operating system has gone live at Catlai. This is an advanced system provided by the Australian-based company Real-time Business Solutions (RBS). In the first week of TOPX, the fact that the productivity fell down to 15 container/vesselhour due to the unfamiliarity with the new procedures caused worry to the shipping lines and shippers. We are very sorry for this inconvenience and look forward to receiving your understanding and sympathy for the issue.

Under the prompt instruction of the Board of Directors of SNP, thanks to the best attempt of the SNP’s staffs and precious cooperation and understanding of shipping lines’ representatives and shippers, the situation at Catlai had been much improved. The average vessel handling productivity has been considerably raised to 44 moves/vh and 35 moves/vh for the net and berth productivity respectively in the first days of week 29. Especially, the average waiting time of the vessel for the berthing has reduced to 2.8 hours. The new system helps shorten the time for moving the import laden containers to the customs inspection area as well as the container receipt/ delivery time. The new TOS is now providing the container locations updates on the real time basis. To ensure the stability of the activities at Cat Lai port, SNP has used TOPX for the yard planning up to the present time. The mentioned good results is the initial proof of the success of TOPX which encourages SNP to carry out the next steps of the new application. We plan to use TOPX for loading activities at Terminal A from August 1,2008. The experiences form the operation of Terminal A will be used as the basis to apply the new system for the whole operational activities at Cat Lai port. We believe that with the proper measures to stabilize the terminal operation, the close cooperation and kind support of the shipping lines, productivity at Cat lai will reach 50 moves/vh in the coming months.

As you have been informed in the May-2008 meeting, Saigon Newport has been speeding up the construction of the 216m-long berth ( Berth B7) at Cat lai. It is expected that Berth B7 will be able to accommodate the geared vessels since the end of October and the gearless vessels since the end of December 2008. As per SNP’s plan, in September 2008, 06 brand-new 6 1 wide Kalmar RTGs will be operational at Cat Lai, raising the total number of RTGs at Cat lai to 44 pcs. The new 62,000 square metre Depot No.9, located adjacent to Cat Lai port is now under construction. It will be put into operation in August 2008. SNP has completed the ground leveling at Long Binh ICD. The ICD can accommodate MTY containers since September 2008 and starts its work in the first quarter of 2009.

The 300-metre berth of Tan Cang-Cai Mep deep-sea port–phase 1 will be put into operation in the end of December 2008. This will be the first deep-sea port operational in Vietnam having the capability to accommodate the 6,000- Teu vessel.

Aiming at further improving the service quality and thorough understanding the loyal customers, we are now planning to have the second meeting with the chief representatives of shipping lines in Ho Chi Minh City in the early August to inform you about the operation of Cat Lai port and listen to your proposals.
Once again, I would like to say many thanks to you for your kind understanding and co-operation. We are trying our best to meet your expectation of the SNP’s service quality.
With very best regards,

Nguyen Dang Nghiem
General Director
Saigon Newport Company.