March Front Cover - WorldCargo News Online

WorldCargonewsIndonesia plans two hub ports...The Indonesian government hasdecided to develop two internationalhub ports with a combinedannual capacity of 10 mill TEU.Tanjung Priok in Jakarta willbecome the western hub with themerger this month of Jakarta InternationalContainer Terminal(JICT) and the adjoining Koja Terminalunder the name JakartaContainer Port. Bojonegara inBanten province will function asits supporting port.In the east, a new port will bebuilt at Kalilamong in East Javaprovince, with Tanjung Perak inSurabaya playing the supportingrole. State-owned operatorPelabuhan Indonesia III (PelindoIII) will build the new port withthe help of foreign investors.The new port, estimated tocost US$200 mill, will have a designedcapacity of at least 3 millTEU/year, compared withTanjung Perak’s 1.8 mill TEU. Theport complex will be spread over500 hectares in Kalilamong, about40 km north west of TanjungPerak. The port itself will take up100 hectares, with the remainderreserved for industrial estates.Funding is expected to comefrom the Surabaya administrationand strategic foreign investors.Bidding will open next year. Severalport operators, includingHutchison Port Holdings of HongKong, PSA Corp of Singapore andP&O Ports, are understood tohave expressed interest. Constructionis expected to begin in 2005.At present, Indonesia’s portshave limited capacity to accommodatemother vessels. Mostcargo is transhipped over Singaporeor Malaysian ports. A studyconducted by the governmentshowed that around a third of containerloads in Singapore andMalaysia are derived from Indonesia’sfour large ports at TanjungPriok, Tanjung Perak, Belawan inMedan and Makassar in SouthSulawesi province.Last year, Indonesia’s total containervolumes reached about 4mill TEU, but 95 per cent of theboxes were transhipped to Singaporeand Malaysia for long hauls,costing exporters around US$720mill in transhipment charges.New portfor UAERas Al Khaimah, UAE, plans todevelop a commercial hub at AlHamra Island, according to ShaikhAhmed Bin Saqr Al Qassimi, thenew head of the Emirate’s Customsand Port Authority. He haspromised to kick off the newproject by 2004 and bring improvementsto existing shippingfacilities at Mina Saqr.Shaikh Ahmed claims that theRas Al Khaimah customs departmenthas become more efficientand user-friendly because of bettercoordination with other customsoffices including those at RasAl Khaimah International Airport,Mina Saqr customs, the land pointcustoms office at Ras Al Dara onthe Oman/UAE border, Ras AlKhaimah port, Ras Al KhaimahFree Zone and Jazirat Al Hamra.He also said that Mina Saqr isthriving on well-established bulkcargo operations making it anideal hub for transhipment becauseof its location in the straitof Hormuz and proximity to theIranian port of Bandar Abbas. Thenumber of vessel calls has goneup following a programme tostreamline tariff and customs procedures.The port authority saidthat it is in discussions with anumber of foreign and local companiesoperating large dhows andships to do more business withthe Emirate.Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH)would appear to be facing problemsin Indonesia where legislatorshave backed a governmentmove to annul its contract to operateand manage Jakarta InternationalContainer Terminal (JICT)at Tanjung Priok. HPH has a 51per cent stake in JICT, with thegovernment-owned PelabuhanIndonesia II (Pelindo II) holding48.9 per cent.Industry sources said relationsbetween the joint venture partnershave been strained sincePelindo II began developing thecompeting Multi-Terminal Indonesia(Serbaguna) terminal atTanjung Priok. JICT’s major customer,Maersk Sealand, has givennotice that it plans to shift callsfrom JICT to Serbaguna withinthe next few months.Legislators expressed supportfor the government move afterDeputy State Enterprise MinisterFerdinand Naingoland told themsome container lines had complainedthat service standards atJICT had deteriorated. It is understoodthat APL, Maersk Sealand,P&O Nedlloyd, CMA-CGM,ANL, OOCL and Evergreen havecomplained about slow loading.HPH denies that services havedeteriorated, however. “Operationsat JICT have improved considerably,”it said, adding that theterminal had spent more thanUS$350 mill since the 1999 privatisationto become Indonesia’sfirst international shipping hub.While acknowledging thatcomplaints had been received,JICT president director W SWirjawan said quayside productivityhad improved, with cranePORT NEWS...problems forHPH in Jakarta?Is HPH about to lose its concession tomanage and operate JICT?moves averaging more than 20 perhour, up from the 1999 averageof 15 per hour.Ironically, the government’smove to annul HPH’s contractcame just in advance of a ceremonyto be held this month toannounce the merger of JICT andthe adjoining Koja Terminal toform the Jakarta Container Port.Koja Terminal is 52 per centowned by Pelindo II and 48 percent by HPH.The two terminals will belinked with the completion of a513m berth with a draught of14m, extending the quay to1,200m and increasing their combinedannual handling capacityfrom 2.8 mill to 3.5 mill TEU.● Following Maersk Sealand’s announcementthat it plans to shiftits calls from JICT to Multi-TerminalsIndonesia, HPH has suspendedbusiness dealings with Singapore-basedPortek International,which operates the handlingequipment at the Serbaguna terminalin a joint venture with PTTransindo Interdwipantara. HPHclaims that under its agreementwith Pelindo II, JICT has to reacha certain level of throughput beforecompeting facilities can bedeveloped. HPH said it would notconsider further business untilPortek stops supporting “terminalfacilities which infringe the rightsof JICT in relation to its operationsat Tanjung Priok.” More than10 per cent of Portek’s revenue issaid to be derived from the provisionof equipment and services toHPH-managed terminals.Plate competitionThe Montecon group of stevedoresin Montevideo has forcedthe container terminal operator,Katoen Natie-backed TerminalCuenca de la Plata (TCP), to stopusing a public berth for its “overflowcargo.” Joris Thys, TCP’s terminalmanager, states that hiscompany was within its rights touse the public pier in Montevideofor a small barge operationbecause it did so under the auspicesof a third party, localstevedoring company Norsary.“With only one quay,” saidThys, “we are allowed, under thetender agreement, to use the publicterminal. Now Montecon hasprotested and we cannot useNorsary, but we might be able touse another operator and there areseveral, apart from Montecon.”TCP won a 30-year concessionto operate the container terminalin July 2001 (under theNelsbury consortium banner).For the past year or so Montecon,which bid unsuccessfully for theterminal, has been pressuring theMontevideo port authority(ANP) to allow it to install anduse gantry cranes at the publicberths, but Katoen Natie says thisis against the tender rules untilTCP is handling at least 250,000TEU/year. ANP presidentAgustín Aguerre has tried tocompromise by allowing stevedoresto bring in harbour mobilecranes at public berths 8 and 9.Thys added that TCP wouldlike to be involved in the tenderfor the new multi-purpose terminalplanned by ANP at Montevideo(see WorldCargo News,January 2003, p9). The rules, however,may bar it from bidding.One recent plus for TCP hasbeen the arrival of three MaerskSealand services, including thenorth Europe service, at the terminal.The operator is estimatedto have a 50 per cent share ofMontevideo’s annual 300,000TEU container traffic.● According to Diego Segura,terminal director of P&O Ports’Ter minales Rio de la Plata(TRP) in Buenos Aires, the fiveoperators in the port handledjust 550,000 containers (797,000TEU) last year, a 23 per cent fallcompared to 2001 and roughlya third less than 1998, whenBuenos Aires handled nearly 1.2mill TEU. As reported in lastmonth’s WorldCargo News (p6)the government is set to allowTRP to take over TPA and othermergers may follow.6March 2003