Visitors to the city’s cemetery might have been very surprised when they passed a big container ground in the precinct of a garment company at the corner leading to Linh Trung Industrial Zone in Thu Duc district. Large-size containers, 40 feet, empty, were heaped up there.
The container ground along the Hanoi Highway in Tan Van area, near Dong Nai Bridge, has also been full of empty containers.
The ports of HCM City in the days just before Tet and after Tet remain quiet. A VnExpress reporter, who was present at Saigon-Khanh Hoi port on the second day of the Lunar New Year (January 27), reported that he saw a lot of containers at the ports, but they were empty of commodities.
The Saigon Port’s customs sub-agency said that on the fifth and sixth days of the Lunar New Year (January 30 and 31) it only received 13 customs declarations from five enterprises. On the eighth day of the Lunar New Year (February 2, 2009), the agency received 95 customs declarations, but there were only 20 declarations for exports with the total export turnover of around $30mil.
Nguyen Hoang Tuan, Director of a HCM City-based garment company, said that export orders have decreased by 60%, and that almost no container left the port before and on Tet days.
“I have allowed my staffs to return to their home villages until the 15th day of the Lunar New Year (February 9) as we don’t have much work to do now,” Tuan said.
Director of a private-run enterprise in Binh Thanh district Nguyen Tien Loc said that the economic recession in the US and Europe has made the company’s exports unsalable. Loc said that his company is trying to explore African markets.
He added that some containers of rice, soy sauce and construction materials will be put together within the next week and leave the port to seek new markets. (VNE)
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