Jakarta, Feb 10 (Antara) - The Indonesian government is building what
it calls 'Pendulum Nusantara' (Archipelago Pendulum), a sea corridor
linking six major seaports in the country from Papua in the eastern
region to North Sumatra in the western parts.
The Pendulum Nusantara system is expected to reduce freight costs by at
least 50 percent and to shorten cargo dwelling time at ports from about
seven days to four days only.
This system will facilitate large tonnage ships to call at major ports
to unload cargoes to be delivered by supporting smaller ships through an
integrated system to smaller parts of the country or to smaller
regions.
According to state-owned port operator PT Pelindo II, the system would
also enable returning ships to have freights so that there would be no
ships sailing back with vacant holds.
"The pendulum system is
an effective solution to the problem of ships sailing with vacant holds
from one port to another," PT Pelindo II President Director Richard J
Lino was quoted by centroone.com online media as saying on Tuesday last
week.
He said that the system will accommodate the arrivals of large tonnage
ships at six major ports. After they berthed at the ports, supporting
smaller ships in the pendulum system would take their cargoes and
delivered them to their destinations in the surrounding regions.
Lino said that so far no similar system with the Nusantara Pendulum had
been implemented in Indonesia yet. "We are now still practicing the
point-to-point system," Lino said.
With the Pendulum Nusantara model, shipping companies could operate
large tonnage ships with smaller knots, slower cruising time so that
they could save on fuels. "That's why I challenge the government to
build such a system," he added.
Chief
Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa, who was quoted by TEMPO.CO last month,
said that the Pendulum Nusantara system had become an official national
program. "This national program aims to cut logistics costs," he told a
press conference at Priok Port on January 21, 2013.
He said that with the integrated cargo and freight services, the
logistics cost, which was usually set at Rp6 million, for example, could
be cut to Rp3 million only. But the reduction in the cost of freights
would be done in stages in line with the growth of delivered cargoes.
The chief economic minister said that the pendulum system was not
restricted to the cargo transportation only but also to the modernizing
of the seaports in the country.
In stages, works would be done to modernize seaports, such as dredging
to deepen sea beds to the piers, rearranging the shipping lines and
routes as well as raising the volumes of cargoes.
"That
is why we hope that the system would facilitate that all ships would
sail without vacant holds, particularly those which were sailing back
after delivering cargoes to a certain point," the minister said.
He said that in line with development of the Pendulum Nusantara system,
the government hopes that beginning this year the dwelling time of
cargoes at ports would be reduced from about 4.6 to 7 days to at a
maximum of four days.
"We have set the target at four days, which is equal to the dwelling
time in Malaysia. I think this target could no longer be changed,"
stressed Hatta Rajasa.
The minister explained that based a survey result, the length of
dwelling time of cargoes at Indonesian ports in the 2011 - 2012 period
was between 4.7 and 6.7 days. This was caused by weaknesses such as the
absence of integrated system among agencies at ports.
Therefore, he said, the government would apply all means to reduce the
dwelling time, for example, at Tanjung Priok port in North Jakarta,
including the application of the Auto Gate System at Jakarta
International Container Terminal (JICT).
This system is a breakthrough to speed up services for the entry of cargoes into and their release from ports areas.
Besides, Lino added in the meantime, preparations for the Pendulum
Nusantara system continued to be made at six large ports, which serve as
the main points of the sea transportation corridor in the country.
The six major seaports which will be managed in an integrated system
are Belawan of Medan in North Sumatra, Batam which shares a border with
Singapore, Tanjung Priok port of Jakarta, Tanjung Perak port of East
Java, Makasar port of South Sulawesi and Sorong port of Papua.
Now, as part of the efforts to support the national pendulum system,
the Tanjung Priok port in North Jakarta is being expended with the
construction of the Kalibaru port.
State-owned port operator Pelindo II has said it is preparing Rp7
trillion to build Kalibaru and Sorong (Papua) seaports.
"The investment funds of Rp7 trillion will be used to build the ports
of Kalibaru and Sorong. The construction of Kalibaru port has been
undergoing while Sorong has not yet because its permit is still under
the issuance process," President Director of Pelindo II RJ Lino told the
press last Tuesday.
He said that the investment funds increased drastically from the total
funds in 2012 which were Rp2.1 trillion. The funds were obtained from
the company's internal sources and from strategic partners. The amount
is up 230 percent from the Rp 2.1 trillion that the firm, also known as
the Indonesian Port Corporation (IPC), allocated for investment in 2012.
The Kalibaru port of North Jakarta will be used as a container terminal
and fuel terminal. It is also expected to increase the capacity of
loading and unloading activities which have so far been done at Tanjung
Priok port.
In the meantime, Sorong port will be used, as part of the country's
pendulum system's reinforcement, to reduce logistics sea transportation
costs and to generate equitable economic activities in Indonesia¿s
eastern regions.***3***
(T.A014/S012)
(T.A. Abdussalam/A/A. Abdussalam/Suharto) 10-02-2013 12:09:3 |
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