Construction of Marunda port awaits city permit

State-owned PT Kawasan Berikat Nusantara (KBN), the operator of the industrial bonded zone in North Jakarta, is waiting for a permit from the Jakarta administration to realize its plan to build a container terminal in the Marunda area.

KBN president director Sattar Taba said on Tuesday that construction of the port, which would support the operation of the country’s biggest trade gateway, Tanjung Priok Port, in North Jakarta, would start once a permit from the Jakarta administration was issued.

“The port will be able to shorten our dwelling time from the current 12 days to only one or two days, just like Singapore,” he said.

The port located around 500 meters from Tanjung Priok Port will also be operated by KBN, which operates the industrial bonded zone covering Marunda, Cakung and Tanjung Priok.

The port, which will occupy 3,200 hectares, is expected to start operating next year.

Indonesia’s current dwelling times are among the longest in Southeast Asia.

The dwelling time at Tanjung Priok Port which handles more than 70 percent of incoming and outgoing goods, has lengthened in the past few years, peaking at more than 10 days this year from eight days last year.

Singapore and Thailand, meanwhile, have dwelling times of only 1.2 days and five days, respectively.

The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) has estimated that Tanjung Priok can process only 170 containers a day, far fewer than the 600 containers lining up for service each day.

The chamber has also estimated that the slow handling activities at the port causes losses of Rp 4.8 billion (US$425,400) per day for both exporters and importers.

Sattar said that the new port would speed up the handling activities as it would have a maximum capacity of 6,000 dead weight tons (DWT).

“We have allocated Rp 1.2 trillion for this project, including a sea-dredging project,” he said.

Industry Minister MS Hidayat has previously said that the plan to build a new port in Marunda must be realized soon.

“The port will at least be a temporary alternative due to inefficiency at Tanjung Priok. If such inefficiency continues, our industry will suffer bigger losses and the competitive edge of local businesses will be undermined,” he said.

Sattar said that besides building Marunda port, his firm would also build oil bunkers as well as logistical storage with a total estimated budget of Rp 150 billion and Rp 200 billion, respectively.

He said that the funds would be obtained from the company’s revenue from leasing its land as well as other options, such as credit investment from local government, local consortia or cooperation with foreign partners.

State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan said on Tuesday that PT KBN earned Rp 300 billion in revenue last year and was aiming for Rp 1 trillion this year.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/04/09/construction-marunda-port-awaits-city-permit.html

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