Delivery of containers of goods are being delayed at the country's biggest port, Cat Lai, because of a shortage of equipment and overloading of goods.

The back-up in goods has lengthened the customs clearance process at Cat Lai Port, including delays in electronic customs applications.

Containers received through Cat Lai Port make up more than 80 per cent of HCM City's market share and over 40 per cent of the country's total.

There are around 10,000 20-foot-equivalent units (TEU) receiving custom clearances every day, said Ngo Minh Tuan, deputy general director of the Sai Gon New Port Holding Company, which operates Cat Lai.

He said the service might be slow at times with such a large quantity of goods going through the port.

Tuan said companies either have to accept the slow services or choose to use other ports.

He encouraged customers to send complaints to company's leaders or to its customer-care centre.

But companies have become dependent on the services of Cat Lai, which has the largest market share among all ports.

Many companies have complained in the past week that their containers had been stuck at the port for both sending and receiving.

Since last Monday, the congestion outside the port has become worse, with long queues of container trucks.

Companies providing customs-declaration services said they had been pressured by customers whose containers had not been received or sent.

It has been taking at least three days to complete the customs process, compared to only one day before.

For the past week, customers have needed at least two days to complete their sending of electronic customs declarations, while it took only a half day before, said Nguyen Thong, deputy director of HCM City-based Lien Anh Freight Forwarding Company.

An officer of the Cat Lai Port's Customs Department told Tuoi Tre yesterday that the online customs service had been obstructed over the past few days.

The officer said it could be a technical problem since September, an average of 450-550 customs declarations, lower than early this year, have been cleared every day.

Companies complained that the other reason for the delay was that equipment at the port had not been able to meet service demands.

In addition, there are not enough container transporters at piers or container lifters at the port.

Slow pickup and loading services are the main causes for delays.

VNS