Haiphong hits 2 million TEU as Vietnam’s port capacity race tightens

Hai Phong Port passed 2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) of throughput in 2025, a milestone that marks both a substantial engineering achievement and a test of whether Vietnam's logistics infrastructure can keep pace with the manufacturing investment it has attracted.

Terminals 3 and 4 at Lach Huyen, the deep-water extension of the Haiphong port cluster at the mouth of the Cam river, were developed by Hai Phong Port Joint Stock Company (JSC). They began commercial operation in 2025. Hellenic Shipping News reports the pair can handle vessels of up to 100,000 deadweight tonnes (DWT), the weight a vessel can safely carry including cargo, fuel and crew, and add 1.1 to 1.5 million TEU of annual capacity between them. A separate SUN VN analysis puts the Lach Huyen investment envelope at close to 1 billion dollars across multiple berths. The Vietnamese government raised the permitted vessel size at Lach Huyen to 165,000 DWT from May 2025, which allows the port to receive larger Asia-Europe loops that previously had to transship through Singapore or Hong Kong.

Lloyd's List's One Hundred Container Ports 2025 places Haiphong 29th, ahead of Laem Chabang and closing in on Tanjung Pelepas. The ranking rewards throughput volume rather than operational efficiency, but the relative climb is meaningful for a port that did not appear in the top 40 a decade ago. Vietnam News adds that the 2 millionth box passed through container berths 3 and 4 of the Hai Phong International Container Terminal, the first time any northern Vietnamese seaport has crossed the line.

The Hanoi-Haiphong corridor is the spine along which Vietnam's high-value manufacturing, electronics, precision components, medical devices and increasingly pharmaceuticals, connects to global markets. Roadway capacity on the CT04 and CT05 expressways has been expanded but remains tight at peak, and rail connectivity between Hanoi's northern industrial parks and Lach Huyen is limited to single-track diesel operations with modest container-on-train volumes. When ocean freight disruption forces routing changes, as it has this month in response to Red Sea and Hormuz closures, the inland logistics system has little elastic room to absorb delay.

Cost signals point in the same direction. Vietnam's S&P Global Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) recorded its highest selling-price inflation reading in close to 15 years in early 2026, reflecting Hormuz-driven energy input costs and tightness in the northern industrial labour market. The International Labour Organization has previously estimated that Vietnam accounts for a meaningful share of Southeast Asia's supply chain employment, a figure Vietnamese policy commentary has drawn on repeatedly.

Dong Nai Province is positioning itself as a parallel growth node with a free trade zone (FTZ) designation under consideration at the Ministry of Planning and Investment. Its pitch is a smart logistics hub, with higher automation and lower labour-cost exposure than Haiphong. For shippers moving electronics and automotive parts, the Dong Nai option is attractive; the question is whether Cai Mep-Thi Vai port capacity in the south matches it. Current throughput at Cai Mep is a fraction of Haiphong’s, even as south-based industrial zones fill.

The policy signal from the 2026 infrastructure plan is that the government understands the pressure. The Ministry of Transport has framed a multi-billion-dollar public infrastructure envelope around the Hanoi-Haiphong and Ho Chi Minh City-Cai Mep corridors. The binding question is execution. Large Vietnamese rail and road projects have often been delivered later than the dates originally announced, and a plan built on completions through 2030 is vulnerable to slippage precisely when the manufacturing inflow is accelerating.

Three items are worth watching over the next two quarters. First, Lach Huyen terminals 5 and 6, now under development, will determine whether Haiphong's capacity keeps pace with expected 2027 to 2028 volumes. Second, the rate of rail electrification and dual-tracking between Yen Vien and Lach Huyen will signal whether inland capacity is a real constraint or a planning footnote. Third, Dong Nai's FTZ approval, if it lands, will set the competitive benchmark between the north and south for the next generation of inbound investment.

Vietnam is absorbing a large share of the manufacturing investment leaving China. The 2 million TEU milestone is the signal that the gateway is working. It is not yet the signal that the country has built the infrastructure depth to handle what comes next.