MOL ready to use Vietnam as SE Asia hub

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Hanoi: Next Month Mitsui O.S.K. Lines launches the first phase of a new terminal in the south of Vietnam which will have big ramifications for its global box routes. The facility, part of a cluster of terminals being built in Cai Mep, south of Ho Chi Minh City is costing 20bn yen to build. A new transpacific route starting next month will link Vietnam to the US direct with far larger ships than the draft restricted former French colony is accustomed to, coming in at 6,350 teu in capacity. The entire facility will be finished for MOL by 2011 at which point it will become a southeast Asian hub for the Japanese liner with boxes coming for consolidation from disparate archipelagoes like the Philippines and Indonesia.  [14/05/09]