Pelindo III to built a new international seaport

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

State-owned seaport company PT Pelindo III plans to build a new US$200 million seaport in East Java to serve as an international hub for cargo ships.

Pelindo III President Bambang Darwoto said on Wednesday the new port would help Indonesian exporters save time and money as cargo shipped from the port could bypass Singapore directly to its destination.

"The new port is designed to serve exporters and ships from the eastern part of Indonesia," said Bambang on the sidelines of a hearing with House of Representatives Commission IV for transportation.

He said the plan was also based on the fact that the existing port in Surabaya, Tanjung Perak, was considered too small and could no longer be expanded to accommodate future cargo load volumes of between 3 million to 5 million twenty-feet equivalent units (TEUs).

The installed capacity of the Tanjung Perak port is only around 1.8 million TEUs with 11 cranes operating.

Bambang said the new seaport was expected to have an installed capacity of at least 3 million TEUs with 20 cranes operating.

He said the new port would be built on 500 hectares of coastal area in Kalilamong, about 40 kilometers north west of Tanjung Perak.

The port would be integrated with industrial bonded zones and warehouses to help exporters, he said.

Of the 500 hectares, the port would only require around 100 hectares while the remainder was intended for the industrial estates.

Bambang said the feasibility study had been completed by PT Dwipantara Transconsult and the Surabaya Institute of Technology last year.

Pelindo would get financing help from the Surabaya administration and several strategic foreign investors, he said.

For strategic investors, Pelindo would open a bidding process in 2004 after the company concluded several administration requirements such as an environmental impact analysis and a detailed engineering document.

Bambang claimed that several consortia from Singapore, Europe and Australia had expressed interest in joining the bid. He refused to name names.

The construction of the port will be started in 2005, with operations expected to start in 2015.

Pelindo III, which is headquartered in Indonesia's second largest city Surabaya, operates 37 seaports, including in Central Java, East Java, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, South Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan.

The company's net profit in 2002 increased to Rp 356 billion from Rp 330 billion (US$37.5 million) the previous year.