Port guide · Cai Mep–Thi Vai · OOG · Breakbulk

Cai Mep Port Guide: Terminals, OOG and Heavy Lift Handling

Which Cai Mep terminal your flat rack lands at, how far the road leg really is, and what holds OOG and breakbulk at the gate. Written by the team that trucks it out.

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Cai Mep port is not one quay. It is a cluster of deep-water terminals along the Thi Vai river, run by different operators, with different gates and different habits. A booking that says “Cai Mep” can mean CMIT, TCIT, TCTT, SSIT or Gemalink, and the difference matters when the cargo is a flat rack 3.4 m wide.

This Cai Mep port guide sorts the cluster by what it means for out-of-gauge (OOG), breakbulk and heavy-lift cargo. Below you will also find the road distances we price against, the jobs we have run through each terminal, and the three paperwork gaps that most often hold a truck at the gate.

Where is Cai Mep port, and why do mainline carriers call there?

Cai Mep port, formally the Cai Mep–Thi Vai cluster, sits on the Thi Vai river, south-east of central Ho Chi Minh City. It was part of Ba Ria–Vung Tau province until the 2025 provincial merger. Today the terminal area is in Ho Chi Minh City wards such as Tan Phuoc and Phu My, but many bookings and documents still say “Vung Tau”.

The reason carriers come here is water depth. Saigon Newport lists a water draft at berth of 16.8 m at TCIT and 16 m at TCTT, enough for the largest ships on the Asia–Europe and transpacific loops. The city terminals on the Saigon river cannot take those vessels.

• UN/LOCODE: VNCMT is the code commonly used for Cai Mep, and some systems also show VNTOT. Check the exact terminal on the booking, not only the port code.
• Who uses it: mainline exports and imports for the south, including Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Long An and the Phu My industrial belt.
• What it means for OOG: a flat rack or open top on a mainline service can discharge here without a feeder leg, which removes one extra lift and one more terminal handling of an over-width unit.

Cai Mep port terminals at a glance

The table lists the terminals our trucks work with. Figures come from the operators’ own published data; where we could not confirm a current number, we leave it out rather than guess.

Sources: Saigon Newport (TCIT, TCTT, shared berth) and PTSC Phu My Port. Terminal data changes; we check the current position for your vessel before you book.

Can Cai Mep port take flat racks and open tops?

Yes. All five container terminals in the list above have handled flat racks on our jobs, and SSIT and TCIT open tops as well. The questions that decide the plan are less about the terminal and more about the carrier and the truck.

Carrier acceptance comes first

An over-width or over-height unit needs OOG acceptance from the carrier before it is loaded. Some carriers accept OOG only on mainline services, which is one reason the unit ends up at Cai Mep instead of Cat Lai. Ask us to check before you fix the port of discharge. We get acceptance before you confirm the booking.

The truck has to match the permit

Our own trucks carry a standing over-width permit for flat racks of about 3.3 m. Wider, taller or heavier units need a permit for the exact tractor, trailer and route. The terminal will not release the unit if the cargo is even slightly over what the permit states, so we measure against the permit before the truck reaches the gate.

Container types we move from Cai Mep

For container dimensions and payloads, see our flat rack container dimensions and open top container guides. For the full OOG service, see OOG cargo in Vietnam.

Breakbulk and heavy lift at Cai Mep port

Cargo that will not fit in any container still moves through Cai Mep port, but the right quay depends on the piece. The container terminals handle breakbulk on container ships or as part of a container call. General cargo ports such as PTSC Phu My take conventional breakbulk and project cargo vessels.

• Know the crane limit. PTSC Phu My publishes shore cranes of 40 t and 30 t. Heavier pieces need the ship’s own gear or a mobile or crawler crane booked for the day, and that has to be in the plan before the vessel arrives.
• Plan imports through the yard. For breakbulk imports we plan discharge to the terminal yard, then lift onto our trailer. Direct delivery under the ship’s hook ties the truck to the discharge schedule, so we do it only when it is agreed in advance.
• Exports go to the gate on time. For breakbulk exports to Gemalink, the package has to reach the terminal inside the cut-off window for that vessel, with the shipping documents already matched.

Many of our Cai Mep breakbulk jobs start in a fabrication workshop in Binh Chanh, on the west side of Ho Chi Minh City. Long cylindrical vessels and steel structure leave the workshop on lowbeds and run across the city to Gemalink. In November 2025 we moved 4 such packages in one lot, and in February 2026 a lot of 6.

For units beyond container size, see our breakbulk and heavy lift page, and for road moves of very heavy pieces, heavy haulage in Vietnam. We arrange mobile cranes of 25 to 500 t and SPMT for the job; they are not part of our own trailer fleet.

How far is the road leg from Cai Mep port?

Distance is the trade-off. Cai Mep saves a feeder leg but usually adds road kilometers compared with Cat Lai. The table shows one-way distances we use in our flat rack trucking tariff.

For sites north and west of the city, the extra 60 to 70 km from Cai Mep means more fuel, a longer permitted route and, for oversize loads, more hours inside the night time window. For sites in Phu My, Chau Duc or southern Dong Nai, Cai Mep is usually shorter. We do not apply Cat Lai rates to Cai Mep port pick-ups; each one is priced on its own route.

Routes out of the cluster

Trucks leave Cai Mep port on National Route 51 towards Bien Hoa and Ho Chi Minh City, or south towards Ba Ria and Vung Tau. Oversize loads follow the route written on the permit, and in the city they run inside the hours the permit allows. On jobs to Ben Luc we have run a 40′ flat rack from CMIT with an escort vehicle ahead of the truck.

Our recent jobs through Cai Mep port

These are trucking jobs from our own records, with customer names left out. They show the mix: imports and exports, flat racks, open tops and loose breakbulk.

Import flat rack, TCTT to Ben Luc (March 2026)

Cargo

Machinery in two covered sections on one 40′ flat rack

Route

TCTT, Cai Mep → Ben Luc, now Tay Ninh province

Equipment

Reach stacker at the terminal; our own lowbed

Challenge

Over-width covered sections and a long road leg from the Cai Mep cluster to the west side of Ho Chi Minh City

Result

Unit placed by reach stacker at TCTT straight onto our lowbed and trucked to site without a second lift

Gate checklist: what holds OOG cargo at Cai Mep port

At Cai Mep the cranes are rarely the problem. Paperwork and timing are. This is the list our dispatchers check before a truck leaves for the cluster.

Our internal rule: the consignee sends the D/O, ETA and release documents at least 2 working days before pick-up. Without them, dispatch does not send a truck 70 km to the port to wait.

Local charges at Cai Mep follow the carrier, not the terminal. See our Vietnam local charges tables by shipping line. For the other gateways, go back to the Vietnam ports guide.

FAQ: Cai Mep port for OOG and project cargo

More guides for Vietnam port and OOG planning

Port members and contacts are listed by the Vietnam Seaports Association. We are a licensed customs agent (Decision 247/QD-TCHQ, 2025) and a member of WCA and OPCA; see our page for agents.

Last updated: October 2026