JICT plans international-standard seaport
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.