Shipping to and from Vietnam

Country: Vietnam
Direction: Import
Effective Date: 1st Jan 2024
Expiry Date: Until further notice
Free time: Calendar days
Currency: USD
Invoiced: Per container, per calendar day, per container type
Application: The free time & charges applied will be those in place on the origin price calculation date (PCD)

Free time: "Free Time" is the period agreed between the Carrier and the Merchant for which Demurrage and Detention shall not be paid by the Merchant.

Detention: Compensation payable when the Merchant holds Carrier's Container outside the port, terminal, or depot beyond the agreed amount of Free Time.

Demurrage: Compensation payable when the Merchant holds Carrier’s Container inside the terminal, port, or depot beyond the agreed amount of Free Time (the compensation includes terminal storage costs).

Useful links:

• SPOT terms are those accepted at the time the booking is confirmed and are not necessarily aligned with the standard tariff. For details on how to extend your DnD Free time at destination, click here. DnD Tariff information can be found via Instant Price Search or during booking process.
• D&D Calculator Click here to know more about it
• Terms for Detention and Demurrage
• Rate of Exchange

Import Detention Tariffs

Import Demurrage Tariffs: DRY and Flat & Open top

Import Demurrage Tariff: REEFER

Notes:

• All tariffs are subject to VAT.
• Reefer demurrage includes plug-in/electricity charges. The breakdown in tariff is for transparency.
• Shipper's own containers (SOC) are not subject to detention and demurrage but are subject to storage tariff for SOC.

Country: Vietnam
Direction: Import
Effective Date: 15th Mar 2025
Expiry Date: Until further notice
Free time: Calendar days
Currency: USD
Invoiced: Per container, per calendar day, per container type
Application: The free time & charges applied will be those in place on the origin price calculation date (PCD)

Free time: "Free Time" is the period agreed between the Carrier and the Merchant for which Demurrage and Detention shall not be paid by the Merchant.

Detention: Compensation payable when the Merchant holds Carrier's Container outside the port, terminal, or depot beyond the agreed amount of Free Time.

Demurrage: Compensation payable when the Merchant holds Carrier’s Container inside the terminal, port, or depot beyond the agreed amount of Free Time (the compensation includes terminal storage costs).

Useful links:

• SPOT terms are those accepted at the time the booking is confirmed and are not necessarily aligned with the standard tariff. For details on how to extend your DnD Free time at destination, click here. DnD Tariff information can be found via Instant Price Search or during booking process.
• D&D Calculator Click here to know more about it
• Terms for Detention and Demurrage
• Rate of Exchange

Import Detention Tariffs

Import Demurrage Tariffs: DRY and Flat & Open top

Import Demurrage Tariff: REEFER

Notes:

• All tariffs are subject to VAT.
• Reefer demurrage includes plug-in/electricity charges. The breakdown in tariff is for transparency.
• Shipper's own containers (SOC) are not subject to detention and demurrage and will be settled directly with terminal.

Import handling procedures

1. Arrival notice will be sent to customer’s registered email(s) 1 day prior arrival date.

Customer can register email as per guideline in link here.

2. Customer should complete pre-conditions below for successful request E-Delivery Order (EDO) online:
• Submit original proper endorsed Bill of lading to Maersk office (not applicable in case of Sea- Waybill or Telex release)
• Settle all collect freight & local charges (including demurrage), if any
• Letter of Attorney can be attached in E-Delivery Order request online
3. Guidance for Import journey on Maersk website: Maersk.com (in Vietnamese):

Full link here.

4.In-transit via VNM port (VNSGN & VNVUN):

Customs will strictly supervise the cargo in transit via Vietnam to other countries (including Cambodia transit). Customs will randomly check any transit-cargo inside the container in Cat Lai area and Cai Mep area before approving the transit formalities.

There might be impact to transport plan change, in case containers are hold by VNM authority for inspection.

5.Advisories and Notices:

* Notice of Cat Lai Terminal for Commodity Bone Meal Fish Meal Poultry Meal – effective from 1 Jul 2025

Contact us at:

Email: vn.import@maersk.com
Telephone: +84 28 56785803 (press 3 for Import Customer Service)
Toll free: 1800400441

Special notice:

Customer can check your cargo information using our  tracking service on this website.

* Please monitor your shipment closely via our website or contact with import customer service in case of missing or late document/ information.

B/L clausing, documentation:

All import shipments to Vietnam must have a valid Vietnamese consignee or a Vietnamese notify party with full address, without which container cannot be manifested / allowed to discharge as per Vietnamese Customs regulations and "Will be Retained On Board". All arising costs and risks will be at the merchant's account.

* Mandatory Tax code for customer code creation in Vietnam

As per Tax policy in Vietnam (Circular 153/2010/TT-BTC), Tax reference (Tax code or Tax Identification no) is mandatory in legal invoice which is issued in Vietnam. Any invoice which is issued without tax reference will be cancelled; and new invoice need to be issued with valid tax reference number. As such, with immediate effect, tax reference is set up as mandatory for customer code creation in  Vietnam.

For any shipping instruction (SI) that require newly-created customer code, however tax reference is missing, SI will be rejected until customer can provide valid tax reference

* New regulation for Bill of Lading and Manifest of Import shipments into Vietnam - Immediate effectiveness:

Import service restrictions

Commodities: 

• NO acceptance of Plastics scraps and Used tires to all ports of Vietnam. Commodities codes including:

Commodities descriptions under import restriction to Vietnam as per attached file.

Frozen meat to Haiphong – Vietnam:

• NO acceptance of poultry and livestock by-products all kinds to Haiphong (VNHPH/ VNHP1), Cai Lan (VNCLN) including head/snout/ feet/ paw/ wing/ wing tip/ head/ offal (lung, spleen, liver, omasum…)/ shin/ bone/ genital organs, ect.
• Reefer acceptance to Haiphong is subject to NAP approval, filling.
• Weapons, ammunitions, explosive materials (excluding industrial explosive materials specified by the Prime Minister in the Government's Document No. 1535/CP-KTTH of December 28, 1998), military technical equipment. 
• Antiques. 
• Narcotics. 
• Debauched and reactionary cultural products; children's toys badly affecting the personality education, social order and safety. 
• Assorted firecrackers (excluding assorted signal fireworks for maritime safety and other needs according to separate regulations of the Prime Minister in Document No. 1383/CP-KTTH of November 23, 1998). 
• Cigarettes, cigars and other forms of finished cigarettes. 
• Used consumer goods, including the following commodity groups: 
  • Textiles and garments, footwear, clothes
  • Electronic goods
  • Electro-refrigerative goods
  • Electrical home appliances
  • Interior decorative goods
  • Consumer goods made of ceramics, porcelain, crockery, resin, glass, metal, rubber, plastic and other materials.
  • Used tyres. Please consult our Maersk staff at  Offices & contact if you have this kind of commodity import into Vietnam.
   
• Right-hand drive transport means (including those in knock-down form and those with drives already switched before their import into Vietnam), excluding special-use means operating in narrow spaces, including crane trucks, canal and ditch diggers, road sweepers, road-sprayers; dumpers, road-builders, passenger transfer vehicles at airports and forklifts at warehouses and ports. 
• Used supplies and means, including: 
  • Used engines, frames, tires and inner tubes, accessories and motors of automobiles, tractors, motorbikes and motor-tricycles;
  • Used internal combustion engines with a capacity of 30 CV or less; used machines fitted with internal combustion engines with a capacity of 30 CV or less; 
  • Used chassis mounted with used engines;
  • Used bicycles to Haiphong.
  • Used motorbikes and motor-tricycles;
  • Used ambulances;
  • Used passenger cars of 16 seats or less (including those of a type designed to transport both goods and passengers with the passenger hold and the goods hold in the same cabin);
  • Passenger cars of above 16 seats, already used for more than five years counting from the import year;
  • Trucks with a capacity of under 5 tons (including those of a type designed to transport both goods and passengers with the passenger hold and the goods hold not in the same cabin), already used for more than 5 years counting from the import year;
• Products and materials containing asbestos of amphibole group. 
• Special-use coding machines and coded software programs used to protect the State secrets. 
• Liquid in plastic/metal tanks placed inside shippingline's container. Please consult » Maersk Hanoi prior for acceptance. 

List of imports and exports that require Trade Ministry's permit: 

• Ceramic and granite tiles sized from 400mm x 400mm downwards. 
• Portland cement and clinker. 
• Colour and transparent glass sheets of 1.5-12mm thickness. 
• Printing paper coded 4801; printing paper and unmasked paper coded 4802. 
• Some sorts of construction steel. Please consult us if you have this kind of commodity import into Vietnam. 
• Purified vegetable oil. 
• Purified and unrefined sugar. 
• Complete two-wheel and three-wheel vehicles and SKD and CKD parts; incomplete vehicle frames. 
• Vehicles of 16 seats downward. 

Weight / Measurement: 

There are no limitations in any port as long as the weight does not exceed maximum allowable payload as per Container Safety Certificate (CSC) plate. 

Maersk must approve for acceptance beyond Container Yard (CY) due to road and bridge limitations. 

Special Cargo:

For Out-Of-Gauge (OOG), Break-Bulk (B/B), please request ad-hoc feeder rates from  Offices & contact

Dangerous cargo: 

Acceptable to all Vietnamese ports except Cat Lai terminal but subject to prior acceptance from transshipment port/ feeder carrier. Please contact Offices & contact for more details.

Effective July 1st, 2024, Cat Lai Port will not accept IMO containers with final destination as Cat Lai Port(VNSGNCL).

Exceptions:
IMO containers for international transshipment.
IMO containers for international transit.
IMO containers for Container Freight Station (CFS) at Cat Lai Port.
IMO container discharges Cat Lai with final delivery to ICD Tan Cang Nhon Trach or Tan Cang Hiep Phuoc Port.