The Ministry of Transport (MoT) has instructed the Vietnam Maritime Administration and relevant agencies to help importers and exporters cope with an increase in the price of container shipping services to Europe and the Americas.

They were asked to ensure the smooth operations of seaports nationwide, creating conditions for import and export activities, and to study and take measures to improve the efficiency of maritime infrastructure exploitation.

The MoT required the Vietnam Maritime Administration to accelerate procedures for vessels transporting imports and exports, particularly container ships to Europe and the Americas.

It asked the Administration to work with shipping companies that operate routes to Europe and the Americas to call on them to sustain these routes and transport additional empty containers to Vietnam to meet increasing transport demand.

It is also necessary to study policies to attract container transport businesses to open new sea routes to Vietnam as well as to simplify related administrative procedures, according to the MoT.

Earlier, the Vietnam Maritime Administration reported that in the first week of January the price of container shipping services from Asia to Europe and the Americas rose 60 per cent compared to the end of last year and 25 per cent year-on-year.