Expansion Planned for Belawan Container Terminal in Medan
Pelabuhan Indonesia I, one of the country’s state seaport operators, plans to begin work on expanding the Belawan International Container Terminal in Medan.
Pelindo I spokesman M. Eriansyah was quoted by state news agency Antara as saying that construction of a 700-meter-long jetty at the container terminal will start this year and be ready in 2015.
“Rp 3 trillion ($318 million) has been earmarked to fund the preliminary phase of the extension of the BITC jetty,” Eriansyah said.
The extension and construction projects will be conducted by Hutama Karya and Wijaya Karya, both of which are state construction companies.
Eriansyah said that after the completion of the first phase, the jetty will be extended by another 950 meters. The extension of the jetty is to increase loading and unloading capacity from 1.3 million units per year to 2 million.
Pelindo I, he said, will also provide the supporting equipment needed for the expanded container terminal, but he did not give details.
BICT currently has 11 container cranes, 26 rubber gantry cranes, two harbor mobile cranes, 10 reach stackers, three side loaders, 55 head trucks and 56 chassis.
Pelindo needs to develop the container port to be able to handle increasing trade through the Malacca Straits.
“The capacity at the BICT is still too low when compared to seaports like those in Penang, Malaysia,” Eriansyah said.
The extension of the Belawan port is part of a government push to improve efficiency at the country’s seaports.
State Enterprise Minister Dahlan Iskan called on several arms of the state port operator – Pelindo I, Pelindo II, Pelindo III and Pelindo IV – to set up container terminal company Peti Kemas Indonesia.
The establishment of PKI is meant to boost coordination and cooperation among seaport operators in handling cargo shipments in the country’s main seaports.
Pelindo II handles 12 ports, including Teluk Bayur in Padang, Palembang and Sunda Kelapa in North Jakarta. It also operates Cirebon in West Java.
Pelindo I handles several ports in the northern part of Sumatra, including Belawan in Medan. Belawan is known as one of Indonesia’s main ports for commodities.
Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta is the busiest port in the archipelago, handling almost 50 percent of the country’s total export and import activities.
Pelindo II plans to spend Rp 52.6 trillion ($5.6 billion) in the next two years to build three new seaports in the country
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