Global shipping giant Maersk Line plans to add more direct routes from Indonesia to its international trade network as it seeks to tap into the opportunities opening up with the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015.
Maersk Line Indonesia president Jakob Friis Sorensen announced the plan recently after the company launched in April a direct service connecting Bitung Port in the eastern part of the country to the Port of Tanjung Pelepas in Johor, Malaysia.
Bitung Port in North Sulawesi was built to facilitate the export of local goods, including fish, coconut products, and wood. The Tanjung Pelepas port, on the other hand, is mainly a transshipment hub in Southeast Asia from where Indonesian goods can be exported to different parts of the world.
The Danish box liner is the first international carrier to use the new Bitung Port-Tanjung Pelepas direct link, which allows Indonesian exporters from the eastern part faster access to the global market, according to a report from The Jakarta Post.
With the direct route, Maersk Line has cut transit time from eastern Indonesia to Europe and the United States by at least a week since it now skips the transshipment of cargo through Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya, East Java. This also enables the company to reduce logistics costs by up to 20 percent, it said.
The plan to add more direct connections from Indonesia to the world trade market is still under study, said Sorensen, noting the need for further improvement in the country’s transport infrastructure, including for port and road development, for the local shipping industry to compete with those of other countries in the ASEAN.
Photo: Frank Wumono
