JICT plans international-standard seaport
Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
An official from the Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT), Indonesia's largest container terminal company, said it would spend around US$70 million this year to upgrade facilities in a drive to become the first fully international-standard seaport hub in the country.
JICT president W.S. Wirjan told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that upgrading the facilities was needed to enhance its direct call shipment service, thus allowing more large ships to load and unload containers at its port.
Speaking on the sidelines of a hearing session with the House of Representatives Commission IV for transportation and Communications, Wirjan said that by 2004, JICT's quay facility would reach a span of 2.5 kilometers with 20 cranes operating and 100 hectares of storage space.
He added that it would enable the terminal to enhance its installed container capacity to 3 million twenty-feet equivalent units (TEUs) from the current 2.3 million TEUs.
However, Wirjawan refused to disclose when the company could start serving the larger international container ships.
JICT, formerly state-owned, is a newly privatized firm in which 51 percent of its share is owned by Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holding Group and 48.9 percent by the state-owned seaport company PT Pelindo II.
Wirjawan said JICT was expected to be able to increase its direct call shipment service from 40 moves/ship/hour to around 80 moves/ship/hour by the end of this year. This will speed up the container loading process into a "mother ship".
JICT will connect its quay facility with Koja Container company in November this year so it can be expanded.
Koja is 52 percent owned by Pelindo II and 48 percent by PT Ocean Terminal Petikemas.
Turning JICT into an full-service international seaport will help Indonesian exporters save time and money as cargo can be shipped from the port directly to overseas destinations without having to make a stop over in Singapore or Malaysian ports.
Currently, Indonesian ports have a limited capacity to accommodate the larger ships.
Thus, most of the ports only serve as a feeder for a bigger ships standing by in Singapore and Malaysia ports.
According to JICT, at least 75 percent of the country's container cargo had to first stopover in one those two countries. A study made by the government estimated that each year domestic exporters were losing around Rp 6.3 trillion (US$715 million) for the double-handling costs in Singapore and Malaysia.