Congestion at harbors

Congestion at harbors

As an aftermath of the Kobe quake, the impact is felt keenly
in Indonesia, thousands of kilometers away. My writing concerning
SGS was published in The Jakarta Post on Feb. 7, 1995.

As I foresaw, the result is congestion at Indonesia's main
ports, especially Jakarta and Surabaya, where it has been
reported that 70 or 80 ships are waiting outside the harbors to
unload their cargoes.

Although the Indonesian authorities have taken the necessary
steps to expedite and facilitate the clearance of goods, we do
not know when things will get back to normal, taking into
consideration that the Yokohama office of SGS has not yet been
able to take over the function of its Kobe office.

We are told by our Tokyo office that the computerized records
at Kobe head office have been completely destroyed and it will
not be possible to 'recover' what has been recorded in the 10
years' since its establishment.

According to the local daily Kompas, Feb. 25, 1995, some of
the steps taken by harbor authorities to expedite and facilitate
the clearance of cargo are:

* Office hours have been extended to 24 hours per day,
naturally by means of two shifts.

* Government cargo, raw material for factories and especially
goods categorized in the 'white list' (which need only a banking
guarantee for payment of customs duty) can be cleared instantly.

This congestion in the harbors of Jakarta and Surabaya has
greatly burdened shipping companies and importers. For example,
the 'wharfage' of one vessel, weighing 5,000 DWT (dead weight
tons) is US$5,000 a day, or about Rp 10 million a day. Hence, a
delay of clearance of the goods lasting four days means a loss of
Rp 20 - 25 million, not to mention the cost for the crew of the
vessel.

Therefore, if there is an order for unloading cargo at Tanjung
Priok, shipping companies are clearly not enthusiastic to receive
such cargo. Consequently owners of cargo should reserve an extra
amount to cover any anticipated demurrage.

At this stage, it is appropriate to express our appreciation
of the efforts taken by SGS-Jakarta, by working 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, to overcome the sudden accumulation of work.

A. DJUANA

Jakarta