Shipping company Maersk is looking to increase its network in Indonesia and will offer direct services from Indonesia to Malaysia in order to cut down transit times by five to seven days for shipments to the US and Europe, reports Seatrade Global.
As South East Asia’s largest and steadily growing economy, Indonesia’s ports are under strain, with no direct lines to Europe or the US. An APM Terminals study in 2011 found that five out of six of Indonesia's major ports were operating above capacity and risked the loss of international trade.
At the moment, a new container port is being built in Jakarta to ease congestion at Indonesia's leading port, Tanjung Priok, with another port under construction in Surabaya. The focus on infrastructure is an important one, said Sorenson, if Indonesia wants to benefit from increased shipping traffic.
“The new port will enable shipping lines to do direct calls at Jakarta, so customers in Indonesia can benefit from faster transit times and reduced logistics costs,” Jakob Frils Sorensen, president of Maersk Line Indonesia, told Seatrade Global. “This, however, needs to be supported by better inter-coastal connectivity so Jakarta can act as a main transshipment port, and offer more competitive costs to shipping lines.
“There’s obviously plenty of room for greater growth in Indonesia, if it can be supported by more foreign direct investment,” Sorensen told Seatrade Global. “Overall, the outlook for Indonesia over the medium to long term remains positive.”
The Indonesian government also expects dwelling times at Tanjung Priok Port, which handles more than two-thirds of Indonesia international trade, to be cut down to four days the end of 2014, reported the Jakarta Post on Thursday. In June last year, the average dwelling time at Tanjung Priok was more than eight days.
