Hai Phong Adds a US West Coast Sailing for Q4 Plywood Orders

US formwork buyers have a new way to move Q4 plywood out of northern Vietnam. MSC started a weekly run on 9 October that loads at Hai Phong and sails for Long Beach and Oakland, and the port marked the first ship with a ceremony. If you buy for a yard in California or Oregon, that is one more fixed departure every week from the port our containers leave from.

The timing works for buyers. With China's Golden Week holiday over, US-bound rates eased a little last week while carriers cut fewer Pacific sailings for the week ahead. Our 5 October brief followed Europe and the return to Suez. This week the order book turns back to North America.

A new weekly loop from Hai Phong to California

According to Hai Phong Port, the ship loads in Hai Phong first and stops at a few North Asian ports before it heads across the Pacific. Being first in the rotation helps. Your container is on board before the vessel gets to the crowded ports up north, but the arrival date still rides on how smoothly those later stops go.

The new loop fits a bigger trend at the port. Port authority figures show cargo through Hai Phong's deep-water Lach Huyen terminals up 87% in the first nine months of the year. When big ships call there directly, northern cargo can skip the small feeder ship to a regional hub. Every handoff you remove is one less chance for a container to miss its connection.

What US freight costs look like this week

Drewry's World Container Index fell 3% to $7,624 per 40ft container from Shanghai to Los Angeles on 8 October, and 2% to $10,220 from Shanghai to New York. Treat those as a market benchmark built on Shanghai. A load from Hai Phong prices on its own carrier quote, and those quotes can sit above or below the index from one week to the next.

For planning, we budget a 40ft high-cube container from Hai Phong at or above $7,624 to the US West Coast and at or above $10,220 to the US East Coast. Drewry expects rates to hold near these levels next week and counts four cancelled sailings on the Pacific for the week ahead, down from eleven this week. Quick note on the jargon: a cancelled sailing, or blank sailing, is a voyage the carrier pulls from the schedule. Nobody is sending an empty ship. Fewer of them means more space to book.

European buyers are seeing the softer side of the market. Drewry has Asia–Europe rates down for 13 weeks in a row, with Shanghai to Rotterdam near $3,300 per 40ft, although carriers are trying to push increases through in the second half of October.

Reliability is still the cost to watch

Sea-Intelligence reported that only about half of container ships worldwide arrived on schedule in August, the weakest reading since 2022, and late ships came in nearly a week behind on average. Asia was below the global figure. A cheap rate on a late ship costs a contractor more than it saves once a pour slips.

That is why the routing question belongs on the booking. We would rather pay a fair Pacific rate on a ship that loads in Hai Phong first than chase a lower quote that relays through a crowded hub and loses a week. Ask the forwarder for the vessel's rotation in writing.

Dry weather helps October production

Northern Vietnam turned sunny and dry this week after the early-October cold front, according to the national weather centre. Dry days help veneer drying and keep press schedules on time. The forecasters expect fewer storms than usual this year under a strong El Niño, though they warn that the storms that do form could be strong late in the season, so a little margin on December production dates is sensible.

Raw material is in good supply. Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Environment says plantation timber harvests reached 18.9 million m³ in the first nine months, up 5.3% on last year, and wood product exports rose 7.3% to almost $13.43 billion over the same period. The United States is still the biggest buyer, taking about half of that trade.

What US buyers are ordering

US construction spending rose almost 1% in August, per the Census Bureau, with residential and nonresidential work both up. For the concrete trades that keeps forming panels moving. Most US formwork yards buy HDO plywood, the phenolic overlay panel built for many pours and a smooth finish, or MatteFace panels (often searched as MDO) where the crew wants a matte concrete face. Our guide to importing Vietnam plywood into the USA covers the paperwork that travels with each container.

Dollar contracts keep currency simple. The State Bank of Vietnam's central rate barely moved this week at about 25,620 dong per dollar, so FOB Vietnam quotes in dollars are not being pushed around by the exchange rate.

What to do this week

Book Q4 West Coast loads against a named vessel week, and ask whether it is the new Hai Phong loop or a relay. Budget freight close to today's level and give December production dates a few days of margin. Buyers who line up those details now will have panels in the yard ahead of the January rush.

About Vinawood

Vinawood is a Vietnamese plywood manufacturer established in 1992. We ship about 5,000 containers a year to 55+ export countries, and every formwork and film-faced panel goes through a 12-step production process and 100% individual sheet inspection. Certifications include ISO 9001, FSC-COC, PEFC, EN 13986 CE marking and EPA TSCA Title VI, and the wood is plantation-grown. North American buyers can also draw ready stock from our distribution warehouses in Canada and the US. For Q4 and Q1 orders, request a quote.