A US$224 million joint venture project is expected to raise the capacity of ports in HCM City.

The joint venture between UK ports and ferries group P&O Ports and Tan Thuan Industrial Promotion Company (IPC) would aims to build a container terminal on a total area of around 20ha in Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park on the outskirts of the city.

The port's design capacity is 1.5 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent unit). TEUs are the standard size of a shipping container. P&O Ports held an 80 percent stake in the venture and IPC held the remainder, according to the HCM City Investment and Trade Promotion Centre.

A ground-breaking ceremony will likely to take place on June 7 if the Government allows the HCM City People's Committee to grant the investment license, according to the municipal committee.

The committee hopes the new port will absorb cargo from existing ports on the Sai Gon River which are scheduled to be closed over the next 10-15 years.

P&O Ports operates 27 container terminals in 16 nations and offer logistics services in 100 ports in 19 countries.