State port operator PT Pelindo II is embarking on a five-year overhaul of Tanjung Priok port to challenge the dominance of Singapore as a regional trade hub, in a process that requires Rp 6 trillion in fresh investment.

“[So far] ships opt to do transshipment in Singapore rather than in Tanjung Priok. Starting next year, we will improve this port, so that we can provide better services and supporting infrastructure for [big] ships,” Pelindo president director Richard J. Lino said on the sidelines of seminar projecting Jakarta as Indonesia’s hub port.

According to Richard, one of the improvements needed is to create a more efficient port administration  which will be easier to access.

“We have discussed with the Customs and Excise Office about cutting the document process down to a half day,” he said, adding that currently it needed seven days to process  documents in Tanjung Priok, in contrast to one day in Singapore.

According to Richard, due to the limited infrastructure for big ships and the bureaucratic culture, only 40 percent of total loads aimed for export transited via Tanjung Priok, while the rest did their transshipment in Singapore.

In 2008, about 18,000 ships were transiting in Tanjung Priok, carrying 62 million tons of cargo that included 4 million TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) of containers.

“Hopefully, the hub port, which  will be officially in place in 2014, will boost the volume of containers going through Tanjung Priok up to 8 million TEUs from 4 million in 2009,” he said.

He said that besides administration reform, there were other things that needed to be improved at the congested Tanjung Priok to reach the level of a professional hub port.

“We will re-design the port to  a depth of 18 meters and some 14 meter-docks for big ships carrying more that 5,000 TEUs of containers,” Richard said.

To facilitate the plan Pelindo will carry out land reclamation from the sea so as to widen the port’s handling capacity, according to Richard.

“We need 300 hectares of additional land. We also need 6 hectares more of parking lots in the port,” he said, adding that the new parking lot would be the biggest  in the country.

Currently Tanjung Priok covers 604 hectares of land.

The Transportation Ministry’s director general of sea transportation Sunaryo said that it was not easy to create a hub port because it had to fulfill many criteria.

“The port should be near the international sea lanes and with a minimum depth of 14 meters.

“However, Tanjung Priok is only 11 meters depth. It needs some dredging to make the sea deeper,” Sunaryo said.

He said that the shallowness of the port had caused the port to face difficulties in accommodating ships of more than 200,000 tons .

Pelindo has estimated that the overhaul of Tanjung Priok will require at least Rp 6 trillion (US$610 million).

“We are still trying to get investors,” Richard said.

Pelindo II manages ports in 12 areas across the country including Sunda Kelapa in Jakarta, Banten, Palembang in South Sumatra and Teluk Bayur in West Sumatra.

In the third quarter of this year, the company booked Rp 1.8 trillion in revenue from Rp 2.3 trillion targeted this year.

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