Vietnam's major infrastructure projects hit by material shortages and land‑acquisition delays

Vietnam’s large‑scale road and transport projects are lagging behind schedule because of chronic shortages of construction materials and prolonged land‑acquisition disputes. A 500‑billion‑dong highway linking Ha Trung and Bỉm Sơn has reached only about 35 % of its planned work after more than four years, pushing its completion date to 2027. Officials attribute the material deficit to depleted sand reserves in the Mekong Delta, limited quarry capacity for stone, and slow adjustment of extraction licences despite special legal mechanisms.

Nguyễn Thế Minh, deputy head of the Construction Investment Management Department, explained that “the scarcity is due to upstream dam blocks reducing sediment flow, and existing mines can only process 1–2 million cubic metres per year, far below the demand for national highway projects.” The bottleneck raises project costs and threatens the broader goal of accelerating Vietnam’s infrastructure development.

The government has introduced streamlined permitting and direct‑to‑contractor quarry allocations, but implementation lags, leaving contractors to bear higher material prices and transport costs amid volatile global fuel markets.