S

tate port operator Pelindo I has obtained Rp 5.05 trillion (US$384.87 million) worth of loans from three state lenders to finance the development of its new port and terminal.

The operator signed on Monday two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) on the financing with Bank Mandiri, Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) and Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) at the State Palace, witnessed by President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo and State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Minister Rini Soemarno.

Under the first MoU, Pelindo '€” which has a network covering the western and northwestern parts of Indonesia '€” will obtain Rp 1.87 trillion in financing from Mandiri to develop its Belawan International Container Terminal (BICT) in Medan, North Sumatra province.

The second MoU will see Pelindo receive Rp 3.18 trillion under a club deal plan from Mandiri, BNI and BRI for the development of its Kuala Tanjung Port located in Batubara regency, North Sumatra.

Each financing will mature after 12 years.

According to Pelindo president director Bambang Eka Cahyana, the company will need Rp 2.67 trillion to develop the BICT until its expected completion in late 2017.

'€œThe state banks will provide 70 percent of the needed funds, while Pelindo I and [state construction firm] Wijaya Karya will provide the rest as joint investors in the BICT,'€ he said.

The newly revamped BICT will be able to handle a larger volume of containers, up to 2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) per year from 1.3 million TEUs at present.

Meanwhile, construction of Kuala Tanjung Port will be carried out in several stages, with the first stage estimated to be completed before March 2017. The first stage, Bambang said, would cost Rp 4.54 trillion.

Similar to the BICT, financing provided by the state banks for Kuala Tanjung Port will account for 70 percent of the total costs, while the remainder will be provided by Pelindo and state construction firms Pembangunan Perumahan and Waskita Karya.

'€œWhen the first stage is completed, Kuala Tanjung will have a capacity of 500,000 TEUs and 3.5 million bulk liquid. We will proceed with the next stage after that,'€ Bambang said.

Bambang expected the new port to be able to cater to businesses in the surrounding areas, such as those of state aluminum maker PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum).

Contacted separately, BNI president director Achmad Baiquni said that the amount of financing under the club deal plan would be divided equally between the state lenders.

'€œWe have many other infrastructure projects in our pipeline. We will immediately disburse the funds once our partners are ready,'€ he said.

BNI, as previously reported, hopes to jack up the outstanding amount of its infrastructure loan to Rp 50 trillion in 2015, an increase from Rp 36.6 trillion last year.

Mandiri president director Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that the facility provided to Pelindo was part of its target to channel trillions of rupiah into the infrastructure sector.

It has so far identified about Rp 48.6 trillion-worth of financing potentials from various projects in 2015, ranging from airports, seaports and toll roads.