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The Maersk Line Indonesia is increasing its coverage through its direct shipping service from eastern Indonesia to Malaysia this year to take advantage of the opportunities created by the 2015 ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).
Jakob Friis Sorensen, president director of the Denmark-based company, said that the AEC would give shipping companies in the country, including Maersk, more room to compete and grow as, geographically speaking, most of the transportation business in the AEC would be done by sea, reported The Jakarta Post.
For example, Maersk, which had noticed an increase in exports of products from the eastern part of Indonesia, established a direct service connecting that part of the archipelago to its main transhipment hub port in Tanjung Pelepas, Malaysia, to connect exporters to the global market, he said.
"We are very proud that two months ago we started shipping direct from Bitung Port in North Sulawesi to Tanjung Pelepas in Johor, Malaysia, which is our main hub to the world," Sorensen said at a conference at the Pullman Hotel in Jakarta.
Following the establishment of the new service, Maersk no longer had to transship its cargo through Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya, East Java – Indonesia's second-largest port after Tanjung Priok in Jakarta – where it often faced congestion, he said.
Maersk, therefore, was able to cut down the transit time to reach the major world markets like Europe and the United States by as much as two weeks, or one week on average.
Maersk trade and marketing general manager Muhammad Sofyan said the first sailing from Bitung Port departed in mid-April and on each voyage the firm could transport around 60 to 70 containers.
"This figure is quite encouraging because it is in line with our expectations," he said, adding that he was confident that the service could be sustainable in the long run.
The company, he said, also received a warm response from many people in North Sulawesi who had begun to export their products such as tuna, coconuts and charcoal.
Sofyan said Bitung fit well into the firm's shipping network, allowing Maersk to operate two scheduled sailings a month.
"According to Maersk analysis, direct shipping from Bitung can reduce the logistics costs of exporters by up to 20 percent," he said.
The company has also planned to add other direct routes from Indonesia, aside from Bitung, as part of its business expansion plan.
The plan is still being studied, according to Sofyan.
Despite opportunities in the AEC for shipping firms, Jakob said that Indonesia had a great deal of work still to do on infrastructure development, such as in ports and road development, in order for the shipping industry to grow and compete with their rivals in other countries in ASEAN.
By way of comparison, the time required for a container vessel, from when it docks until it leaves port again, is half as long in Thailand as it is in Indonesia, according to Jakob.
Cargonews Asia
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