Like the human heart, ports play an important role in the national economy. Their main role is to distribute goods like pumping blood in the human body.
If this ‘heart’ has problems, the impact will be wide-ranging. For example, high prices, disrupted industry, and finally Indonesia’s competitiveness becomes weak.
Business actors have bad memories of various port problems in the past. For example, the problem of extortion, aka illegal levies, which used to be a scary specter for many parties.
“In the past, it was very bad, like it was a habit when there was loading and unloading, so some were prioritized, because of extortion. Well, now with digital, everything is not like that,” said the General Chairperson of the Indonesian Truck Entrepreneurs Association (Aptrindo) Gemilang Tarigan to detikcom written on Tuesday (19/9/2023).
The existence of this extortion is clearly a serious problem at the port. This makes the delivery of goods late because extortion determines the delivery time. On the other hand, the existence of extortion also burdens logistics costs.
Port managers also continue to improve to overcome various problems, one of which is done through digitalization. “Now with digital this doesn’t happen, if it’s digital, then it’s regulated by the system,” he said.
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The merger of PT Pelindo (Persero) brings a breath of fresh air for business actors. According to him, this merger also means a merger of systems. Moreover, he said, currently there is a Single Truck Identification Data (TID), namely an electronic data recording system for every truck operating which is now at Tanjung Priok Port. This system is to support the Truck Booking System and Terminal Operating System.
“This means that the best system in one place will be used entirely. Like in Tanjung Priok there is already something called TID, this is a good system for truck entrepreneurs so that trucks enter the port, especially at this gate, it is implemented throughout Indonesia, that’s why there is a TID system nationally,” he explained.
Entrepreneurs in the shipping sector also hope that the government’s move to merge Pelindo can reduce logistics costs. Chairperson of the Indonesian National Shipowners Association (INSA) Carmelita Hartoto explained that when talking about logistics, it needs to be comprehensive. Because, logistics in Indonesia involves multimodal.
The scope of this logistics starts from the factory, shipping, port and then boarding the ship. The same process occurs when the ship arrives at the destination port until the goods finally reach the end user.
“Each post has its costs, starting from production, warehousing, trucking, depot, forwarding, stuffing, port, shipping, inventory costs in warehousing and administration costs,” he told detikcom.
In addition to costs, another challenge is the uneven development between regions. He also gave an example of a problem, namely when a ship from Java to Papua carries a full load, but not when the ship returns. This makes logistics costs in Indonesia inefficient.
Container Terminal Photo: doc. Pelindo Container Terminal
Carmelita hopes that the merger of Pelindo will contribute to increasingly efficient logistics costs. Because, with the merger, it is hoped that services between ports will have the same standard.
“We hope that the merger of Pelindo will make services between ports between regions equally good. Each region currently still depends on the SLA or service level agreement agreed between the service provider and service user. We also hope that port costs will be more efficient,” he said.
October 1, 2021, was a historic moment for the Indonesian port sector. On that date, Pelindo officially joined. The merger of BUMN is expected to be one of the cures for logistics problems in the country.
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“Our logistics costs are still much more expensive than many countries in the world, 24%. The average logistics cost in the world is 11%,” said Minister of BUMN Erick Thohir in detikcom’s notes on October 1, 2021.
At that time, Erick Thohir hoped that in the future Pelindo would be able to reduce logistics costs with all the infrastructure it has. “We hope that with this Pelindo merger, as a country with a large maritime area, we will also rebalance our market with the infrastructure that Pelindo has and we continue to strive to reduce logistics costs,” he explained.
It took a long time to merge these port BUMNs. In fact, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) admitted that it took 7 years for Pelindo to unite. This was conveyed by Jokowi at the Pelindo merger ceremony in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).
“Seven years ago I ordered the Minister of BUMN, all President Directors of Pelindo I, Pelindo II, Pelindo III, Pelindo IV to immediately hold Pel
indo this. I’ve been waiting for 7 years but it hasn’t happened,” he said.
The former Mayor of Solo then hoped that Pelindo could make Indonesia’s logistics costs competitive with other countries, so that Indonesia’s competitiveness would improve. He also advised Pelindo to look for partners who have extensive networks. Thus, Indonesia can be well connected with other countries.
“What does that mean? Our products, our goods can travel everywhere, enter the global supply chain, the goal is there so once again I really appreciate what has been done by BUMN, by the Minister of BUMN and his staff, this is that it will later become a great power,” he explained.
Pelindo’s Positive Performance
The merger of Pelindo through consolidation and optimization of finance, operations and human resources makes the company stronger and more integrated. This is reflected in the company’s increasingly positive performance. In 2022, Pelindo recorded a net profit of IDR 3.9 trillion. This profit grew 23% compared to the previous year.
“The merger of Pelindo has created synergy between entities within the Pelindo Group so that port management can be carried out centrally and more optimally. This is combined with solid performance, making Pelindo successful in recording an increase in performance in 2022,” said Pelindo President Director Arif Suhartono in his statement.
Pelindo’s contribution to the country also increased by 54% from 2021 of IDR 4.7 trillion to IDR 7.2 trillion in 2022. This contribution is through dividend payments, PNBP, concessions, PPh, PPN and PBB.
The financial performance that experienced growth was supported by operational performance that showed improvement. The flow of containers in 2022 was recorded at 17.2 million TEUs or an increase of 1% compared to the same period in 2021. Then, the flow of goods was recorded at 160 million tons, growing 9% compared to the previous year.
Meanwhile, the flow of ships entering and leaving the port reached 1.2 billion GT or grew 1% compared to the previous year. On the other hand, passenger traffic reached 15 million people or increased by 86% compared to the previous year.
Centralized management is the main key to improving operational performance. This allows Pelindo to have better control, thus facilitating end-to-end service transformation, such as creating standardization of previously different port operational service systems.
As an illustration, the improvement in container loading and unloading performance is measured by the parameters of boxes per ship per hour (BSH) and the reduction in port stay or ship berthing time at the port.
“For Pelindo, the shorter berthing time and loading and unloading time make operational costs more efficient, and it is hoped that ship traffic can increase. For customers, both shipping lines and cargo owners can also reap the benefits of cost efficiency and greater business opportunities,” said Arif.
Arif gave an example, at the Belawan Container Terminal (TPK) and Makassar TPK, the number of loading and unloading has now increased from 20 boxes per ship per hour to 34-45 boxes, even reaching 60 boxes when optimal. The speed of loading and unloading can also reduce ship docking time by half. Performance improvements also occurred at TPK Ambon and Sorong.
“In the future, all our container terminal services will have the same service standards according to their respective classes, this certainly makes it easier to control and monitor both for us as operators and for users of our services,” added Arif.
Pelindo has also launched an integrated container port operating system called the Terminal Operating System (TOS) Nusantara. This system is used to design, control, monitor, and report all port activities such as loading and unloading, stacking, relocation, and gate arrangements (gate in-gate out). This system will gradually be operated at various terminals in Indonesia.
Pelindo Photo: Doc. Pelindo
The performance of Indonesia’s ports is recorded in data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released in September 2022. Indonesia is in the top 20 in port performance.
Indonesia is on the list based on data from the average movement of container ships from 1,000 GT and above in the first semester of 2022. Indonesia is ranked 12th above Italy, France, Greece, Germany, the United States (US) Russia, Australia and Canada. The average movement in Indonesia reaches 24.9 hours in port.
Chairperson of the MTI Maritime Transportation Forum, Hafida Fahmiasari, said that digitalization can eradicate extortion at ports. He said that in Jayapura, the use of the Integrated Billing System (IBS) could reduce various types of extortion due to transparency in port service payments.
According to him, to improve the quality of services at the port, standardization of operations and service quality is needed
emi reduces port stay of cargo at the port. “This can reduce the density that occurs at the entry gate for trucks and also the flow of ships at the berth, so that in total it will reduce logistics costs, aka it will become cheaper,” he explained.
In addition, after the merger for two years, there also needs to be an evaluation of what changes have occurred in Pelindo. So the hope is that from the internal side it can accelerate positive things that are done such as increasing loading and unloading efficiency, reducing port stays and can be applied in all branches.
“Also by strengthening the merger of ports throughout Indonesia, Pelindo is expected to be able to deliver more than what has been achieved now,” he explained.
source: https://finance.detik.com/berita-ekonomi-bisnis/d-6939490/satu-pelabuhan-demi-ongkos-logistik-yang-murah.