Billionaire Gautam Adani is charting new waters, with plans to build a state-of-the-art port in Vietnam as part of his ambitious global expansion. This venture by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd. has reportedly received “in-principle approval” from the Vietnamese government for a greenfield development in Da Nang, revealed Karan Adani, the company's managing director.
This project, still in its nascent stage, will feature container terminals and multipurpose berths to handle diverse cargo, with investment details yet to be finalized, according to a report.
This will be Adani group's fourth international port, joining its counterparts in Haifa, Israel; Colombo, Sri Lanka; and the Port of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Just last week, Adani's new mega port in Kerala welcomed its first mother ship, signaling the company’s intent to aggressively expand and capture a larger slice of the international maritime trade, an arena currently dominated by China.
"The vision is to establish India as a maritime hub," said Karan, the elder son of Gautam Adani. "We are focusing on countries with high manufacturing output or large populations, driving high consumption. Our target is to boost export volumes in these regions."
As India’s largest port operator, Adani Ports currently derives about 5% of its volume from international operations and aims to double this to 10% by 2030. The company is eyeing opportunities in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, East Africa, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Vietnam, and Cambodia, regions that are pivotal to India’s trade.
Adani is also doubling down on his investment in the Vizhinjam port in Kerala, committing $2.4 billion to accelerate its expansion and attract some of the world’s largest vessels. "We plan to invest $2.4 billion in the Vizhinjam international transshipment terminal by 2028," Karan said in an earlier presser.
