Opening opportunities for container fleet development

One of the notable new regulations in Decree 247/2025, effective from October 30, is the adjustment of the age limit for used foreign ships registered for the first time in Vietnam.

Accordingly, the age of foreign-flagged ships, submarines , and submersibles registered for the first time in Vietnam must not exceed 10 years; Other types of ships, floating storage facilities, and mobile platforms must not exceed 15 years.

New regulations on buying, selling and building new ships have opened up opportunities for businesses to develop container fleets (Illustration photo).

Special cases are decided by the Minister of Construction , in which no more than 17 years for container ships with a capacity of 1,500 Teu or more. Other special cases are decided by the Prime Minister.

Thus, with the new regulation, the age limit for container ships registered in Vietnam has increased from 15 years old (according to current regulations) to 17 years old.

This is a positive signal for businesses to conveniently invest in accordance with their financial capacity. Mr. Pham Quoc Long, Vice President of the Vietnam Shipowners Association, said that currently, the investment cost for a new ship is very high, not every business can afford to invest in a new ship.

According to Mr. Long, in reality, ships around 17 years old are still capable of good exploitation, bringing operational efficiency to businesses. "Old ships will also have more suitable prices, giving businesses the opportunity to invest and expand their fleets to develop production and business ," Mr. Long shared.

According to the explanation of the Vietnam Maritime Administration, the addition of special cases for container ships (not older than 17 years old) is according to the Project on developing Vietnam's maritime transport fleet approved by the Ministry of Transport (now the Ministry of Construction), aiming to develop a fleet of container ships carrying national flags to meet the needs of the transport market, grasp the strong trend of containerization in freight transport, high growth rate in recent times and will continue this trend in the coming time.

Currently, the Vietnamese-flagged container fleet has about 44 vessels, with an average age of 18.5 years, mainly small vessels with a capacity of less than 600 Teu. Regulations limiting the size of vessels to 1,500 Teu or more are intended to increase the number of large-capacity vessels suitable for intra-Asia routes.

Allowing container ships under 17 years old with a capacity of 1,500 Teus or more will reduce costs for businesses and meet the demand for transporting goods by container ships.

At the same time, increasing the total GRT tonnage of the national container fleet will contribute to increasing the market share and import and export cargo transport capacity of the Vietnamese shipping fleet, reducing dependence on foreign shipping lines for domestic import and export goods.