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usinesses and consumers are to suffer further losses as the time it takes for goods to enter and leave Tanjung Priok Port '€” the country'€™s main port '€” continues to increase.

The dwelling time at the port in North Jakarta, which handles around 70 percent of all goods entering the country, has spanned to eight days since earlier this year, according to the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin).

The dwelling time begins from the time a carrier moors at a port to the time its cargo is unloaded and the cargo leaves the port, or vice versa.

'€œThe dwelling time [at the port]should be lowered to three days as instructed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono because we want to reduce logistics costs borne by logistics players and customers, because it affects the price of goods,'€ Kadin permanent committee on logistics services head Irwan Ardi Hasman said on Thursday. He added that all stakeholders, including state port operator Pelindo II must work on the issue.

In spite of this, the dwelling time has continued to increase, for example from six-and-a-half days last year to eight days this year, in line with its economy that has annually expanded to more than 6 percent since 2010.

Kadin also asked Pelindo II to reduce the port'€™s yard occupancy ratio (YOR), another port efficiency measurement, from 106 percent to 65 percent to make moving containers more efficient.

The lower the YOR the less space containers take up at port, thus, the faster the containers move.

According to Kadin, around 600 containers must be loaded, unloaded and checked every day at the port. However, the current situation means that only 170 containers are processed daily, with a backlog of some 400 containers that results in congestion at the port'€™s terminals.

Kadin Jakarta deputy head Sjafrizal BK said businesspeople could suffer losses of up to Rp 4.8 billion (US$484,800) a day due to the port'€™s tardiness.

'€œWe are afraid that we are going to suffer more losses during Ramadhan [fasting month] because the flow of goods during this month will increase due to rising demand,'€ he said.

Indonesia'€™s logistics performance is one of the poorest among Southeast Asian countries, ranked 59th out of 155 developing and high-income economies included in the World Bank'€™s 2012 logistics performance index, far behind the Philippines and Vietnam.

Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang S. Ervan said the government initiated Inaportnet '€” a system that streamlines the clearance and permit process to move cargo online '€” at the port and was collaborating with Pelindo II to run the Rp 500 billion system.