As a maritime and
archipelago state, Indonesia was expected to have strong and reliable shipping
industry. However in reality the existing infra-structure was not ultimate
especially in the harbor sector. This was the handicap that caused logistics
cost to be high at home.
It was not a secret that long dwelling time of ships at
Tanjung Priok Harbor was the main contributor to high logistics cost in
Indonesia. The upjump of average dwelling time at Tanjung Priok Harbor from 4.8
days in October 2010 to 8 – 10 days in 2013 was rated as setback that worsened
trade climate especially in export and import.
A condition as such generated anxiety among ship line
operators as there was no assurance for proprietor of goods in the loading and
unloading process which was time consuming. A condition a such underscored that
service performance was still below businessworld’s expectation. Long dwelling
time would have its effect on transportation and logistics cost, on shore or
off shore while harbor’s tariff kept increasing.
Under the circumstances, as told by Akbar Djohan as
Chairman of the Permanent Committee of Logistics, Regulations and HRD KADIN
Indonesia, it seemed no exaggeration to say that the harbor management had
failed to anticipate increase of flow of goods. The point was that Indonesia’s
economic growth which in 2013 came to 5.7% - 6% had jacked up increase of goods
flow through Tanjung Priok harbor. It was most regretful that the condition of
Tanjung Priok harbor over the pst 3 years had not posted any significant
progress to the target of tackling logistics inefficiency at the harbor was
never met.
Talking about infra structure, the Government always
threw a discourse to jack up development and harbor building up to the remote
areas. The reason was that infra structure development, particularly harbor
building was rated as important and supportive to Inter territory connectivity
which would strengthen national industrial competitiveness toward Asean Free
Trade 2015.
The fact was that as a vast archipelago state, the
condition if harbors in Indonesia was measly by quality or quantity. Supposedly
the Government and harbor management was consistent in harbor development,
expensive or innovative because it took through planning to build harbors to anticipate
future need.
Infra structure building must be based on the long term
need. Meaning it did not have to wait till problem arises before starting to
build a harbor, new or alternative. Apparently the Tanjung Priok, which was the
harbor to rely on, was now stagnated while the alternative harbor was not
completed, Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Logistics Zaldy was quoted
as saying during interval of the discussion session entitled “The impact of
harbor performance on national economy” on Saturday [11/1]
Master Plan of Kalibaru
Harbor
In developing Tanjung Priok harbor, PT Pelabuhan II Indonesia
had prepared Masterplan of Kalibaru harbor or New Tanjung Priok Harbor which
was estimated to cost Rp22.66 trillion of investment. The concept of Kalibaru
harbor was introduced in November 2010 and ground breaking had started on March
2013.
Since the beginning the Kalibaru harbor was designed to
be supporter of Tanjung Priok harbor considering that the Tanjung Priok harbor
was overloaded.
Phase I of the new Tanjung Priok harbor consisted of 3
contaner terminals and 2 oil fuel terminals built on 195 hectares of land. This
place would increase harbor capacity to become 4.5 million TEU containers and
9.4 million m3 oil and gas. By end of December 2013, the progress of kalibaru
terminal building was claimed to be 20% accomplished. Pelindo II was optimistic
that by end of 2014, the Kalibaru Terminal would be completed and start
operation. Today it was till at the stage of hammering foundation poled at
3,346 location points. Pelindo II had appointed Mitsui & Co as preferred
bidder for operating the first container terminal.
The question now was whether Pelindo II was able to race
against time to complete the project on time, considering the high increase of
freight traffic. Logistic inefficiency was inevitable. On the one hand Pelindo
II needed enormous fund to manage and develop the Tanjung Priok harbor, on the
other hand for the Jalibaru harbor project Pelindo II was still at the stage of
Mou signing with Mitsui in terms of financing while commitment by banks was
only agreed at Rp 4 trillion.
What made things worse was that even the internal condition
of Pelindo II management was critical after resignation of some high officials
which was orchestrated by workers’ stike who were offended by the arrogance of
R J Lino the President of the company. Spontaneously on December 23-24 last,
under the coordination of labor union of PT Pelabuhan Indonesia, a number of
workers were waging demonstration. Thank God the demonstration did not shatter
economic activities at the harbor. Supposely the Tanjung Priok harbor did not
have to have such disturbance considering the strategic position for goods
flow, such was the expectation expressed by Stakeholders of the harbor. (SS)
Business News - January 17, 2014
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