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tate-owned port operator Pelindo II will install a new information technology system at Tanjung Priok port in North Jakarta, the country’s main shipment gateway, in the middle of this year to help ease congestion, a senior official said in Jakarta on Monday.

Pelindo II president director Richard Joost Lino said that his company would use the IT system to monitor vessel traffic online.

“With this system, we can ease vessel congestion as well as decrease the number of vessel collisions. The system will make the work flow at Tanjung Priok port more effective and efficient,” Lino said.

Pelindo II has allocated Rp 105 billion (US$11.55 million) to build the IT system, he said.

By the end of 2011, container traffic at the port had reached 5.47 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs), surpassing the maximum capacity of 5 million TEUs.

In 2009, traffic was at 3.7 million TEUs and in 2010 at 4.7 million TEUs.

“We have also converted a 1,000- square meter-plot of land in Terminal three into an international container terminal to help ease the traffic,” he said.

Pelindo II will inform the port’s service users about the IT system, and expects them to fully adapt to the system within six months, he added.

“We must be able to decrease the container idle time from six days to three days in near future,” he said.

Pelindo II will also install the vessel traffic information system at Palembang, Pontianak, and Jambi ports in 2013, he said.

Pelindo II has also been mulling buying new container loading cranes, comprising two quay container cranes (QCC) and 11 luffing container cranes (LFF). Each crane costs Rp 2 billion to Rp 3 billion.

Pelindo II’s revenue rose 30 percent from Rp 3.01 trillion in 2010 to Rp 3.96 trillion in 2011, the company reported.
Its net profit increased 3.2 percent from Rp 1.25 trillion in 2010 to Rp 1.29 trillion at the end of last year. (nfo)