Containers at Cat Lai Port. — VNA/VNS Photo Tien Luc

Viet Nam’s seaports handled more than 689 million tonnes of cargo this year, up 4 per cent annually, reported the Viet Nam Maritime Administration.

During the year, the country’s fleet of cargo ships were estimated to transport nearly 160 million tonnes of cargo, an annual increase of 3 per cent, including 2.6 million TEUs of containers, up 8 per cent year-on-year.

Viet Nam now has 1,516 seagoing vessels, 1,049 of them cargo ships with a combined tonnage of around 9.3 million tonnes. The country ranks fourth in ASEAN and 30th globally in terms of the number of vessels.

The average age of Vietnamese vessels is 15.5 years, or 5.8 years less than the world’s average.

So far this year, the Viet Nam Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Centre has saved 60 vessels in distress with 765 people aboard, including 13 foreigners. — VNS