VietNamNet Bridge – Many seaports in Vietnam are being compared with the world’s “dumping grounds” where thousands of containers of imported wasted materials have piled up.

 

 

The Hai Phong Port

According to the Vietnam Maritime Bureau (Vinamarine), about 5,450 containers and 1,323 consignments of goods have been left at seaports as of the end of August 2014.

Most of the uncleared imports have been found in Hai Phong (5,000 containers). Meanwhile, 52 containers had been left at Quang Ninh Port, 99 containers at Da Nang Port, and 177 containers and 1,323 consignments of goods at ports in HCM City.

The goods are mostly used rubber tires, clothes, scrap materials, used electrical appliances, electronics and frozen food. These include 2,700 containers of used tires. The goods could not meet the standards to be imported to Vietnam as scrap materials for local production.

Vinamarine’s head Nguyen Nhat said 1,000 containers out of the 5,000 uncleared containers had been left at Hai Phong Port since 2006.

The goods owners planned to import goods for re-export later to third countries, especially China. However, they failed to re-export the products as China unexpectedly tightened control over imports across border gates.

Nhat said the loosened regulations on temporary import for re-export later have paved the way for more waste materials to enter Vietnam. 

As the imports cannot be re-exported, they are now unowned and have been left at the airports for an indefinite time.

It is estimated that goods owners have to pay VND300 million per container for the container storage and other expenses. Meanwhile, the value of the containers is modest, just VND10-20 million.

Vinamarine’s promises

Nhat said though relevant agencies have all said they want to free the seaports from uncleared goods, it will take time to have the uncleared goods examined by appropriate agencies and classified. They also have to search for goods owners.

Vinamarine has proposed drastic measures to hasten the process of clearing the seaports of “garbage”.

The goods owners who make customs declarations for import consignments but cannot show import licenses, according to Nhat, need to be fined and forced to re-export the goods. 

Appropriate agencies will have the right to seize and destroy the goods if the goods owners do not pay fines and follow appropriate agencies’ instructions.

Vinamarine has even asked for the intervention of the ministries of Transport and Finance to clear 183 containers owned by SBIC, a state-owned shipbuilding enterprise, at Hai Phong Port.

The Ministry of Transport has been urged to ask the Ministry of Finance to allocate funds to destroy the goods.

DV