PT PAL: Shipyard consolidation momentum to optimise opportunities
Jakarta – PT PAL Indonesia’s Chief Executive Kaharuddin Djenod has stated that the consolidation of Indonesia’s national shipyards represents a momentum to optimise the opportunity for Indonesia’s maritime requirements to be met independently.
“We will continue this consolidation, and this year alone, at minimum we must contract and immediately commence work on 23 vessels. We can distribute these according to capacity and proportion, making this consolidation critically important,” he said during the Strategic Discussion on Maritime Industry Chapter II held in Jakarta on Saturday.
During the occasion, he explained that since Prabowo Subianto’s election as President, the maritime sector has been designated as one of the pillars contributing to economic growth.
Through the Investment Management Board for National Anagata Power (BPI Danantara), PT PAL Indonesia has been appointed as the lead integrator for national shipyards. This means all new ship requirements from state-owned enterprises must be ordered through the company.
Although this directive gives PT PAL numerous projects and revenue opportunities, Kaharuddin emphasised that this task represents substantial responsibility requiring extraordinary effort to guide the nation’s grand vision.
Currently, Indonesia is said to remain trapped in unhealthy competition and friction among maritime industry players and their supporting industries domestically. Consequently, the sector’s remarkable potential is actually leaking abroad. Although growth figures may appear high, Kaharuddin continued, this is meaningless if it fails to deliver prosperity for the Indonesian people.
“What we must do is ensure we can genuinely capture these figures, that they remain within our country by uniting our steps, aligning our direction, and joining hands with one another. This cake is too large for us to compete unhealthily over,” he said.
The President has tasked PT PAL with becoming the lead integrator and national consolidator with two primary responsibilities.
The first is strengthening corporate quality and product quality to ensure Indonesia’s maritime industry quality advances and becomes competitive with global companies.
The second is achieving economies of scale for several industries to build industrialisation in the maritime sector. Given that orders come through a single channel, PT PAL can aggregate the volume of component requirements, ranging from main engines, generators, cables, pipes, and electrical panels, reaching figures commercially viable for establishing new factories in Indonesia.
“Therefore, President Prabowo Subianto’s directive to PT PAL Indonesia to construct all new ships in Indonesia is not merely to award PT PAL a massive project, but to assign PT PAL two tasks,” Kaharuddin stated.
“The first is how to collectively elevate all maritime sector industries, raising corporate quality and product quality. The second is aggregating equipment quantities, tools, modules, panels, and so forth to meet the economies of scale to establish one factory, two factories, and even hundreds of factories in Indonesia,” said PT PAL Indonesia’s Chief Executive.