The Nghi Loc Inland Container Depot (in Nghi Loc district) is planned to cover an area of 10 - 15 hectares by 2030, with the capacity to handle 100,000 - 150,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) per year. By 2050, it is expected to expand to 40 hectares and connect with the road network, including National Highway 1A as well as the seaports of Cua Lo and Vung Ang.
The Thanh Thuy Inland Container Depot (in Thanh Chuong district) is planned to have an area of approximately 20 hectares by 2050. It is intended to be connected to the Hanoi - Vientiane expressway, which will pass through the Thanh Thuy border crossing in the future, as well as connected to the seaports of Cua Lo and Vung Ang.
These two ICDs in Nghe An, along with the Cau Treo Inland Container Depot in Huong Son district (Ha Tinh province) and the Vung Ang Inland Container Depot in Ky Anh town (Ha Tinh province), constitute the depot system of National Highway 8 transport corridor, whose planning scope covering is in the two provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh with a total planned area by 2030 is 20 - 25 hectares and a capacity to handle around 200,000 - 250,000 TEUs per year.
ICDs are an integral part of the transportation infrastructure, serving as hubs for organizing transport activities related to seaports, airports, inland waterways, railway stations, and land border crossings.
The Prime Minister has emphasized that the development of ICDs must align with the development plans of the seaport system and transportation network while meeting the needs for economic and social development and ensuring national security in various regions and localities.
The development of the inland container depot system aims to optimize the import and export cargo transportation for each region and economic corridors. It involves developing depots near seaports to provide direct support and depots far from seaports connected to distribution centers, cargo consumption areas, land border crossings, and railways to efficiently organize the transportation network, promote multimodal transportation, and reduce transportation and logistics service costs.
The plan prioritizes the establishment and development of depots linked to high-volume transportation methods (inland waterways and railways) and depots connected to economic zones, industrial zones, export processing zones, logistics centers, and international land border crossings with high demand for high-volume transportation.
According to the plan, by 2030, Vietnam aims to develop an inland container depot system capable of handling 25% to 35% of the container cargo transportation demand along transport corridors, with a total capacity ranging from 11.9 million to 17.1 million TEUs per year.
Specifically, the northern region will have depots and depot clusters with a capacity of 4.29 million to 6.2 million TEUs per year, the central and central highland regions will have capacities of 0.9 million to 1.4 million TEUs per year, and the southern region will have capacities of 6.8 million to 9.5 million TEUs per year.
By 2050, the plan envisions developing the ICD system into centres of goods transportation, transit and distribution along with logistics services. It aims to handle 30% - 35% of the container cargo transportation demand along transport corridors while meeting the logistics demand in localities.
