JAKARTA INDONESIA (ISL News) - In September 2023, Bappenas announced that Indonesia's logistics costs had reached 14.29% of GDP, down from the previous period in 2018 which was at 23.80%.
The government is targeting national logistics costs to be reduced by up to 8% of GDP by 2045. As one of the state-owned enterprises in the logistics sector, PT Pelabuhan Indonesia or Pelindo (Persero) supports the achievement of this target by accelerating port transformation.
"So far, Indonesia has been able to reduce logistics costs by 13 to 14 percent, but that is still high compared to other countries. Therefore, in accordance with President Prabowo's direction to support the food, energy, and downstream self-sufficiency programs. So, today I continue the coordination so that these costs can be reduced again," said Erick Thohir after a meeting with the Minister of Transportation, Dudy Purwagandhi, Jakarta, Monday (10/29/2024).
Collaboration between the Ministry of SOEs and the Ministry of Transportation to accelerate the reduction of logistics costs, especially in the transportation sector, in line with the food, energy, and downstream self-sufficiency programs initiated by the government.
The transformation carried out by Pelindo through standardization and digitalization is expected to increase the efficiency of port services and strengthen the strategic role of ports in the logistics supply chain, in order to encourage the achievement of the target of reducing national logistics costs.
The level of efficiency of port services can be assessed from the port stay, which is the duration required for a ship to dock at the port. The faster the loading and unloading of goods is carried out at the port, the shorter the duration of the port stay will be, which will then have an impact on increasing the sailing time of the ship, so that shipping companies as users of port services will benefit from operational cost savings. Based on studies conducted by Pelindo and testimonials from customers, the acceleration of services that have been carried out has a direct impact on fuel savings of 15-30% per shipping cycle.
Service transformation is consistently and gradually implemented throughout Pelindo's work area. As an illustration, the standardization of container operational services in the Sorong Branch has succeeded in increasing loading and unloading productivity from 17 BSH (Box per Ship per Hour) to 30 BSH. In line with that, crane handling productivity has also increased from 8 BCH (Box per Crane per Hour) to 22 BCH which has an impact on reducing port stay from an average of 72 hours or 3 days to 24 hours or 1 day.
In non-container operational services, operational standardization at the Jamrud-Nilam-Mirah Branch (Surabaya) has succeeded in improving performance for liquid bulk commodities by reducing port stays by 30%, from 89 hours to 62 hours. Improvements are also seen in dry bulk commodities, where port stays can be reduced by 22%, from 86 hours to 67 hours. This shows Pelindo's commitment to strengthening national logistics connectivity in order to support the government's food security, energy and downstream programs.
Digitization of Port Services
Pelindo President Director Arif Suhartono added that the improvement in port performance is also supported by the digitalization of port services that allows the flow of goods to be more controlled because it is monitored through an integrated system that is accurate and responsive. "Pelindo is committed to continuing to contribute to creating a more efficient logistics ecosystem. Pelindo's strategy focuses on shortening port stays," added Arif.
The implementation of Pelindo's transformation is also directly proportional to the operational performance of the corporation which has experienced a growth trend over the past three years. The flow of goods served by Pelindo ports until November 2024 was recorded at 181.2 million tons, an increase of 17% from the previous year. Of that amount, 55% were export-import goods. Meanwhile, the flow of containers also showed an increase of 6.4% in the same period, namely 17.1 million TEUs, of which 46% were export-import containers.
The transformation carried out by Pelindo was welcomed by shipping companies, including Meratus Line. Meratus Line President Director, Slamet Raharjo said that Pelindo's transformation makes it easier for service users to communicate with Pelindo if there are shipping or loading and unloading obstacles. With the transformation, loading and unloading services can be carried out through one door which is beneficial in terms of time efficiency and logistics costs.
(ISL News Editorial Team/Corcom Pelindo Pusat /email: islnewstv@gmail.com).
