Customs Reveals Cause of 10,000 Container Pile-Up at Tanjung Priok

Director General of Customs and Excise at the Ministry of Finance, Djaka Budhi Utama, has revealed that around 10,000 import containers were recently piled up at Tanjung Priok Port in North Jakarta. Business operators are said to have delayed collecting their goods by taking advantage of storage facilities at the terminal.

According to Djaka, several companies continued to hold their goods despite having obtained official permits, known as Surat Persetujuan Pengeluaran Barang (SPPB). "Yesterday there were nearly 10,000 containers still at the port," Djaka stated during a meeting with Commission XI of the House of Representatives in Senayan, Jakarta, on Monday, 15 June 2026.

Under the regulations, companies are required to remove goods from the port within a maximum of three days after receiving the SPPB. However, Djaka noted that some businesses held onto their goods for many days after the SPPB was issued. "For example, BYD and Wuling were still utilising the facilities provided by the port for three days after the SPPB was issued, and in fact, some were not collected for more than two weeks," Djaka said.

From a customs perspective, the companies had already completed the administrative process. Consequently, Customs is compelling these companies to promptly withdraw their goods from the port area. He also suspects that business operators are exploiting the storage timeframe due to a lack of space outside the port area. Additionally, he believes the cheaper storage costs or fines at the port are a motivating factor. "Given that the cost is cheaper than outside, they are taking advantage of that. Perhaps going forward, we will immediately push them out to line 2, to locations outside the port," he said.

Previously, Subandi, Chairman of the National Importers Association of Indonesia (GINSI), had refuted claims that business operators were deliberately exploiting cheap fines at the port. He stated that the daily fine after the three-day SPPB grace period is actually high. According to him, one cause of the long queues is that inspection personnel do not work a full day. "There are not enough personnel, and they do not work three shifts per day, meaning not a full week, not to mention half-day Saturdays and Sundays off," he said. Subandi argued that import inspections should be conducted daily by arranging rotating work schedules for personnel. With the volume of imported goods continuously increasing, additional inspection personnel are needed to prevent congestion or bottlenecks at the port.