Can Indonesia'a Planned Container Terminal Compete?

Indonesia’s ambitious plans for the new port of Tanjung Sauh seem not to regard Singapore's transhipment dominance.

Singapore’s relentless cargo growth of 5.7% last year, up to 31.6 million TEU, indicates that it is still catering well to customers’ transshipment needs. The same applies to nearby Tanjung Pelepas. Although its traffic increased by only 2.1%, up to 7.7 million teu, this was preceded by 19.7% growth in 2011. Indonesia’s plans to build a competing container terminal in nearby Tanjung Sauh with a capacity of 4 million teu is surprising to say the least, therefore, but it does have some local cargo arguments on its side, observes the Drewry report.

Apart from the global economic meltdown of 2009, Indonesia's economy as an emerging market grew by about 6% per annum between 2005-2012, helping to increase its container traffic from nearly 7 million TEU to more than 12 million teu, which means that, regardless of its success as an international transshipment centre, the new port does have another big market to target.

Tanjung Sauh, located between the islands of Batam and Bintan, involves an initial investment of $756 million. The first phase, which is expected to be completed by 2015, will have a 2 kilometre long wharf. A further 4.5 km of wharf is expected to be built during the later stage of development.

Source: Drewry Container Insight