"The ships of CMA-CGM are the largest ever making a call at Tanjung Priok," Chief Executive of JICT, Gunta Prabawa, said here on Monday.
Earlier, JICT was similarly successful in providing fast services for 2 other giant ships of CMA CGM - the Titus and Tancredi - with port productivity at the JICT of 27-30 Mph.
Gunta described the visits by the giant ships as a new era of the appearance of more giant ships at the Jakarta port indicating that JICT has been ready to provide world class port services.
"Global shipping companies have allowed their ships to berth at Tanjung Priok as they have confidence in our services," Gunta said.
The 334 meter long Otello had unloaded 1,551 TEUs of container goods at Tanjung Priok, he said.
He said CMA-CGM has reached an agreement with PT JICT by opening new shipping service called the Java South East Asia Express Services/ Java SEA Express Services/ JAX Services.
The weekly service will take the route of Tanjung Priok - West Coast (Los Angeles & Oakland) of the United States.
"The first service of JAX Services began on 9 April, 2017 by the Titus of CMA-CGM. Indonesian exporters and importers are expected to utilize the service," Gunta said.
Earlier this month, President Joko Widodo said large ships would began to berth at Jakartas Tanjung Priok port after continued improvements in services by the port operator.
"Soon or next week there will be a ship measuring 10,000 TEUS to call at Tanjung Priok," Jokowi said when officially commissioning an access toll road to the countrys largest port.
The president attributed the success in attracting large ships to Tanjung Priok to improved service including a significant cut in dwelling time.
The dwelling time, needed for unloading, has been cut short to 3.5 days now from earlier up to six days. Long dwelling time had discouraged ships from making a visit to Tanjung Priok as it would mean losing time and an increase in berthing fee.
The president himself stepped in to improve services, cut the red tape and simplify all procedures that reduce illegal levies earlier rampant at the port.
The president said he hoped improvement in the port service would make Indonesia more competitive and the seas transport cost would be cheaper to and from Indonesia as large cargo ships could sail directly to and berth at Tanjung Priok.
"The flows of goods could be much faster via Tajung Priok. Transit is no longer needed for imported container cargoes in Singapore," he said, adding large container ships could be berthed at Tanjung Priok.
Previously large ships carrying container goods for Indonesia have to make a transit in Singapore to unload the cargo to be loaded gain on smaller ships as Tanjung Priok could not yet accommodate large container vessels.
The new access road would contribute to improving services at the port , Jokowi said, adding "This also helps improve the countrys competitiveness."
He said an estimated 3,600 containers would be transported via the 11.4 kilometer access road everyday. (*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2017
